Script Review: Jonah Hex

Genre: Western/Thriller?
Premise: Outlaw/Bounty Hunter Jonah Hex is forced to go after the man who killed his wife and daughter. Josh Brolin plays the title character.
Writers: Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor (Dated October 31, 2007)

Okayyy. Where do I begin. I'm not quiet sure what to say about this script exactly. That's not a good thing. Josh Brolin's star is back on the rise, that should be a good sign. John Malkovich, Megan Fox, Michael Shannon, and Will Arnett round out the supporting cast, that seems pretty cool. But a cast doesn't make a script. The writers do. Only thing I know Neveldine and Taylor from is Crank, and while that was an entertaining movie, it's nothing to write home about. So let's journey into the Jonah Hex script and dig deeper into this.

Right off the bat, this script breaks the rules. A script needs boundaries. I don't know what the specific rules are in this script. There are zombies, ghosts that apparently can kill people, and our main character can take take two shots from a shotgun to the chest and be up and walking moments later. I was so confused by all this. It's all a jumbled mess.

The plot, from what I can tell, is that Jonah Hex is forced by some officials to take down a man named Turnbull. Don't ask what the consequences are if Mr. Hex doesn't oblige, for this script never explains. Everything in the middle is Jonah finding himself in one situation after another where he goes about killing people in all sorts of gruesome ways. Along the way we find out Jonah had a wife and kid, and he was partially responsible for the death of Turnbull's son, which has sent him in this tizzy.

This is where things get crazy. Turnbull is so upset over his son's death he starts his own army. Why? Seriously, I'd like to know. It's never explained. All we get is a stand-off between Turnbull's Rebels and the severely outnumbered Good Guys. Well, the Good Guys burn all of Tunrbull's rebels alove in a matter of seconds. It's very unimpressive. Then there's the climax. The final showdown between Jonah and Turnbull where we find out the only reason Jonah was helping the governement officials was because Turnbull killed his wife and son and left him a nasty scar on his face. And then they brawl a little. Yawn. It's pretty anti-climatic.

There's also a sideplot with the hooker Leila, who serves no real purpose here, and probably even less purpose on screen. In fact, there's a whole array of side characters who make no sense and have no need to be in the script, and only make things more complicated.

The only redeeming quality of the script is probably all the gruesome kills Jonah deals out on his journey, but even they grow tiresome after a while. Hopefully this script underwent some major rewrites. Until then, it stays an overly-repetitive, slightly entertaining, and a complete mess of a script. Sorry fans.

[] Somebody should be fired
[x] Bad
[] Mediocre
[] Worth the read
[] Great
[] Amazing