Defendor (2009) Movie Review

  Over the weekend I had a chance to see a less known movie named Defendor. Yes, that's the correct spelling, it's Defendor, not Defender. Even in the movie the main character corrects others on how to say it.

  Defendor is about a normal average every day guy by the name of Arthur Poppington, also know as Defendor by night, played by Woody Harrelson (know for his role in Zombieland), who goes out on patrol at night protecting people from the criminal "punks". His goal is to take down "Captain Industry", who's supposed to be head of the city's biggest criminal ring. Defendor has no super powers, just is trench club, marbles, angry wasps, and above all else his courage.

  At first the flick felt like it was going to be this director's version of Kick-Ass, and depending on your perspective, it could be looked at in that way. They both came out about the same time frame, Defendor in 2009, and Kick-Ass in 2010. Also Kick-Ass did come out as a comic book first. In my personal opinion, I'm going to give it a pass one reason, who hasn't come up with their own "Batman" like hero, and wanted to actually go and fight crime when we were kids? Especially those of us who enjoy reading comics.

  Defendor is a dark comedy, a side of heart. It actually did make me laugh quite a few times while watching it. One of my favorite moments, is when Arthur shows up to work bruised and beaten, and his friend asked him who did it to him. Arthur tells him he fell down stairs, and his friend proceeds to push him asking who did it, and what did they look like, Arthur then proceeded to draw the shape of stairs in the air. I ended up liking the main character Arthur as a person. He made me feel like he truly did care about the people in his life, and the citizens of the city. He's quite likable. There were certain aspects of the flick that I felt didn't really need to be explained, the best example of this is when Arthur's psychiatrist explains to him why people in his life love him so much. Woody Harrelson, and the rest of the cast portrayed this well enough where I didn't need it to be explained to me. A cool little note to add, the actor who played Casey Jones (Elias Koteas) in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles plays a dirty cop in it.

  Overall, I give Defendor, a 3 out of 5. That's how I rate a pretty average movie. It wasn't mind blowing, and it isn't the most memorable film. But I did enjoy watching it, laughing with it, and I enjoyed the progression story. It's worth a view at the very least.