Indeed, if he was an orphan and lived in a crime-filled depressive slum of a town, becoming Defendor could be Mr Gump's idea of upholding the good. Both characters are mentally stuck in their childhood and are haunted by the traumatized past in their present.But Defendor is no Forrest Gump. And it's definitely not Woody Harrelson's fault, because portraying a brave and righteous but weak-minded and ultimately very vulnerable Arthur Poppington was definitely a step up on his acting ladder.The real problem is the film's mood. Forrest Gump was more or less a fairy tale. In a Grimm'esque sense of course, with dark and sinister twists and turns, but with an overall feel-good vibe and a sad but happy ending. Defendor, on the other hand, is no fantasy but rather a child's perception of the adult people's real world's problems. You see it from the get-go that there's no chance for this story to end well, and only a lucky combination of unlikely events allows the protagonist to get that far.In that sense Defendor is more like Observe and Report with Seth Rogen, where he's a glaring opposite of his typical easy and wisecracking slacker roles. That movie is no less sad than Defendor, but at least it dares to show the misery of a person lost in the maze of his mind and his life realistically. Rogen's Ronnie, a shopping mall security officer obsessed with making himself important, is a mirror in which lots of us, who have lost hope for a brighter future, could see themselves. While Defendor, with its heroization and optimism grounded in nothing, is as real as a burnt sugar lollipop: dark and bitter but nonetheless cloyingly oversweetened.

It seems like barely a day goes by without Hollywood releasing a comic book movie of some kind. The popularity of Batman and Co. has never been higher and it's perfectly understandable that Tinseltown wants to cash in. But what if you're becoming bored of the same old stories told every year, with only a change in costume to differentiate between them? Fear not, for those of you that are feeling comic book fatigue, there is a new hero on the streets; and his name is Defendor. Defendor follows the story of Arthur Poppington, played by Woody Harrelson. Arthur is an average Joe by day, but at night he transforms into the costumed vigilante, Defendor. In fact, he doesn't so much transform, as pull on a black t-shirt with a makeshift 'D' made out of duct tape; with black eye makeup and a bicycle helmet finishing the look. It's a far cry from Batman, but it works perfectly.The story is actually pretty standard comic book fare, as Defendor decides to take on a notorious kingpin in an effort to clean up the streets. It isn't groundbreaking by any stretch, but it doesn't need to be because the character of Arthur/Defendor is so enthralling that you find yourself overlooking the slightly clichéd nature of the plot. The fact that Defendor is an extremely low budget crime fighter also allows for some great little touches- just watch how he uses lime juice in his quest against crime.At the heart of all this is Woody Harrelson's fantastic portrayal of Arthur; a man who clearly has some form of learning disability, even though it is never alluded to directly. Harrelson makes the viewer immediately sympathetic and, as the movie shifts from comedy to drama in the final third, he finds a depth to the character which isn't apparent from the beginning. Kat Dennings and Micheal Kelly provide ample support as a friendly prostitute and Arthur's best friend but this is clearly Harrelson's show; and he is having a ball.A sadly overlooked gem. Defendor is a welcome respite from the recent glut of super serious superheroes. A shift in tone towards the end provides the movie with a little more substance than originally thought and it is all the better for it.

Woody Harrelson is one of those actors whose movies I never initially set out to watch, not in the same way I would for Robert De Niro or someone. However just recently it's occurred to me that most of the films that I've seen of his I've enjoyed.So when I saw he was in Defendor I thought why not give it a go? I was expecting a kind of Kickass style superhero flick about a bumbling idiot who ends up a hero. And in many ways, at least on the surface, you could say that that would be a decent one line summary of the film. However there's far much more to it than you'd expect.Harrelson plays Arthur Poppington, a somewhat homeless man who appears to be suffering from a few learning difficulties. He is helped a lot by his friend, Carter, who has given him a job and some kind of construction site. However after being majorly influenced by comic books Poppington sets out to take to the streets and take revenge on some of the drug lords in the city.He lacks any sort of super powers, but what he lacks in power he makes up for in sheer determination and as much as Poppington is slightly frustrating to watching he is also a character that you can't help but root for, with Harrelson playing him to perfection. One of his exploits he comes across a drug-addicted, teenage prostitute (Kat Dennings) who he sort of takes under his wing - although at times she appears to be irritatingly ungrateful and at the same time Poppington manages to annoy a local corrupt cop (who looks an awful lot like a bald Robert De Niro) as he sets himself up to take on a man who he believes to be his arch-rival, Captain Industry.Does Defendor a.k.a Poppington manage to thwart the villains? Does the city embrace him as a hero? Does Kat Dennings ever thank him? I couldn't spoil it for you. However all I'll say is this really is a touching character study at times and is perhaps as close to life as a vigilante "superhero" type might ever actually be. If only this film was marketed better at the time I think it would have found a good fan-base, however it isn't really a popcorn film and by not being so genre conforming it does lose some of its possible audience.

Part of a wave of supposedly "subversive" superhero movies ("Kick-Ass", "Special", "Super", "Hancock" etc), "Defendor" stars Woody Harrelson as a mentally ill man who constructs a superhero identity in the hopes of defeating "Captain Industry", a villain whom he holds responsible for all the crime in his city.The film is weak in places, but writer/director Peter Stebbings stuffs his script with two good ideas. Late in the film we learn that our superhero is ineffectual precisely because he imagines a singular villain (Captain Industry) to be responsible for both local crimes and his mother's death. We then learn that "Captain Industry" is really "Captain's of Industry". In other words, the entire fabric of the city – its wealth, its people, the myriad of organisations that comprise it - is its own villain. A statement like this is the antithesis to most superhero movies, where cities are typically besieged by a singular super-villain. Here the civilian, the body politic, the social superstructure, is the bad guy (the film is too dumb to explore this properly, but the idea is pointed to). It's Van Rjndt's old "Hitler dilemma": is a single cell in a murderer's body also guilty? What about 2 cells? What about an entire organ? What about a system of organs? The film updates and adapts Cervantes' "Don Quixote". Don Quixote, of course, was about a guy who read heroic tales, saw that the world was messed up, and so went out to slay its dragons. In "Defendor", Woody's character embraces the moral absolutism of Don Quixote, and like Cervantes' hero, is a bit delusional. The implication is twofold: only the mentally ill are allowed license to believe in justice – everyone else passively accepts – and it sometimes take the mad to point out the irrational.The film is well acted by Harrelson, avoids sappiness and contains some good one-liners, but Stebbings' direction is weak, his script thin and the film predictable in parts.7.5/10 - Probably more transgressive than supposedly "shocking" superhero movies like "Kick-Ass" and "Super". Worth one viewing.