No, I’m not making this up, and yes, I’m writing this review sober. I haven’t even gotten to the part where both brothers kick the bucket when a power plant explosion interrupts their sibling rivalry.
All of this information is crammed into the opening credits. I must give props to Walton for the enthusiastic reading of these details from Bragi F. Schut’s screenplay, and to the animators who bring it to life.
The bombastic score by Kevin Kiner and Jed Kurzel is just obnoxious and overbearing enough to almost convince you that this overwritten origin story should be taken seriously. We’re told both characters perish, taking out the power grid with them, but Sam tells us he believes Samaritan is still alive.
For what reason does Sam trust this? The film offers no clarification, nor does it dive into the paranoid fear being drifted around in writer Albert Casler's (Martin Starr) book "Samaritan Lives."
Sam continues to race to Albert each time he sees an old individual presentation an ounce of solidarity, just to be disproven endlessly time once more
Even more ridiculous is Granite City itself. It’s covered in graffiti, vacant lots and alleys and looks like the descriptions of cities Fox News uses to scare its viewers.
You almost expect Austin Butler’s Elvis from that Baz Luhrmann movie to hop over to Amazon from pay-per-view so he can stroll down the street singing “In the Ghetto.”