In the manner typical to these set-ups in Hollywood, Defendor starts quite promisingly, with the perfectly cast Harrelson - no-one does the amiable and earnest buffoon quite as adamantly - getting seven shades beaten out of him with his every attempt at vigilantism. There's a gratifying adherence to the conventions of the superhero genre in details and soundtrack, where the slapstick of Mystery Men might have been expected.
And then you have to conclude that relentless slapstick would have been welcome, instead of a deflating descent into Robin Williams territory, where we're asked to take our sadsack's predicament as a social comment of sorts, whereas it's actually no more equipped to deal with seriousness than were K-Pax and Hancock, of which it's a rough melange.
Don't expect it to be the last of its ilk, in any case. The superhero comic adaptation production line shows no sign of slowing down, meaning a plentiful supply of runts in balaclavas in the real world dreaming of being Batman, consequently generating material for parodies about them. For every electric Kick-Ass, there'll be an inoffensive Defendor. All will be watched by those runts in balaclavas, in any case, just glad to have their lives up on screen.
5/10
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