By Robert Scucci
| Published
Woody Harrelson is the best superhero that never was in Defendor, and gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “vigilante justice.” Through his portrayal of an earnest yet simple man named Arthur Poppington who tries to seek justice despite the fact that he has no actual powers, Defendor is an emotional ride that pays off unlike any other superhero movie I’ve ever seen before. Far from a big-budget blockbuster, you’ll be disappointed if you’re looking for an action flick full of special effects and next-level fight choreography, but you’ll soon find that none of these things would even serve the storytelling, and we’re better off without them.
Arthur Poppington Is Defendor
Defendor first introduces us to its titular character through an interview with Dr. Park (Sandra Oh), the woman tasked with assessing his psychological state after he’s caught assaulting a small business owner. Considered harmless because of his good intentions and his mental disability, Arthur is let back out on the streets under the condition that he stops pretending to be a superhero.
Arthur meets a drug-addicted prostitute named Angel (Kat Dennings), who he takes into his secret lair (the government construction depot he secretly lives in) so she could lay low after a confrontation with corrupt police officer Dooney (Elias Koteas), whom Arthur has reason to believe works for his arch-nemesis, Captain Industry.
Revealing to Angel that he goes out at night dressed as Defendor in his quest for revenge against Captain Industry, the man who is responsible for his mother’s disappearance and death by overdose, Arthur lectures her about her drug habit, because he doesn’t want to see her meet a similar fate. Angel reveals to Arthur that she knows Captain Industry’s real name, and offers to help so she could have a place to stay.
Never Punches Down
Arthur is such a sympathetic character in Defendor because he’s not all there, intellectually speaking, because of the fetal alcohol syndrome that he inherited from his drug-addicted mother when he was born. Singularly obsessed on his crusade against Captain Industry, living in squalor, and roaming the streets at night in his costume that consists of a helmet, eye paint, and duct tape, Defendor sets his sights on Dooney and Captain industry to end their reign of terror once and for all, with mixed results.
While it may sound like I’m describing a comedy about a man with a mental handicap trying to fight crime with hilarious results, you’re only half right. Woody Harrelson’s portrayal of Arthur Poppington is so earnest and thoughtful that it never seems like Defendor is punching down on its protagonist. If anything, we bear witness to a man who loves his mother deeply, cares about his community, and helps whoever he can along the way with his limited resources (marbles and wasps are his weapons of choice) whenever he gets a chance to do so in his own warped way.
As Arthur finds himself at the point of no return in Defendor, he never gives up because, in his mind, he’s fighting for the greater good, and in many ways he is.
Streaming Defendor
Defendor is an impressive film to watch when you consider its reported budget of $4 million, and it just goes to show you that not all heroes wear capes or need fancy tech to get the job done. In this case, our hero doesn’t even have any powers. Most of the fight sequences involve a masked Arthur taking a beating and getting rushed to the hospital because he’s just a regular guy trying to do right by his community who more often than not finds himself in situations where there’s no way in hell he’s going to walk away unscathed.
But day after day, he continues to show up because his entire purpose in life is capturing Captain Industry so no other child has to grow up without a mother like he did.
Surprisingly emotional, but never not funny, Defendor is a superhero film that will make you laugh out loud while feeling a deep sadness for a lonely man with the mind of a child who simply wants to see justice served in his lifetime. As of this writing, you can stream Defendor for free on Tubi.
