Superhero fatigue has become such a real thing that even the people responsible for contributing to the genre are out there admitting it for all the world to hear in an attempt to proclaim their film or TV series as being different, but there was hope that Samaritan would be able to break out of the pack and make the most of its phenomenal concept.
For one thing, director Julius Avery had proven he could turn established genre tropes upside down in spectacular style with the demented World War II action-packed horror Overlord, while the prospect of iconic action hero Sylvester Stallone playing a retired crimefighter long presumed dead hiding in plain sight was mouthwatering in and of itself.
Unfortunately, the longer the wait for Samaritan became, the more likely it was that it would disappoint. Thanks to the pandemic, the movie saw its release date shifted from November 2020 to June 2021, before it was ultimately pulled from theaters altogether and eventually shunted onto Prime Video in August of the following year, where it promptly disappointed with a 38 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
It’s a frustrating watch knowing that a weapons-grade concept was being butchered in plain sight, but that hasn’t deterred subscribers from giving Samaritan another whirl. Per FlixPatrol, the long-delayed and crushingly underwhelming unique entry into superhero canon has returned to the global Top 10 on its home platform, even if it’s probably not the sort of thing you’d encourage anybody to watch more than once.