At this point, focusing on the prevalence of superhero movies is a reductionist strategy. A subgenre of superhero movies that aren't affiliated with Marvel or DC has grown into its own cottage industry as a result of their entrenchment in the industry landscape. To varied degrees of success, films like Chronicle and Brightburn have attempted to add a new depth to the fundamental idea of regular individuals with amazing powers. The Boys, on the other hand, has skillfully demonstrated how the genre can be subverted to the point of no return in terms of the implied brutality and hedonism that underpins the whole idea of heroes.

In Samaritan, a young child named sam (Javon Walton) is followed as he navigates the continuously soggy Granite City. Although Sam's mother Tiffany (Dasha Polanco) is working hard to keep the family afloat, sam continues to con local bodega owners and have affairs with would-be criminals. The legend of two super-strong brothers who battled in the distant past, Samaritan and Nemesis, hangs over the city. Samaritan killed his brother while defending the city and was afterwards assumed to be deceased. But when sam encounters Joe (Sylvester Stallone), he starts to think that Samaritan is still alive and that he could stop the city's escalating insurrection that was started by Cyrus, a villain (Game of Thrones alum Pilou Asbaek).

Samaritan rejects the conventional origin narrative structure and instead uses an animated opening credits sequence to tell the tale of its titular hero and his fated sibling. Since then, Granite City appears to be in disarray due to the hero's disappearance. The persistent cloud cover and the piles of trash on the walkways serve as visual substitutes for the raw realism that the film believes will convey depth. Due to the city's decline, Cyrus has the ideal chance to take advantage of Granite City's residents and incite riots and other forms of violence. This section of the plot is never developed in any substantial way.

Samaritan, which could have taken a variety of interesting turns, lacks the guts to be as scathing or biting as The Boys, nor does it aim to shatter the superhero mould the way Marvel did in the previous two years with programmes like WandaVision. Some people might find it intriguing to see a superhuman Stallone, but the film hardly gives him a chance to demonstrate them until the finale, which resorts to cliched "save-the-day" heroics. Additionally, it's obvious that Stallone isn't giving it his all. In the end, Samaritan commits a major superhero genre fault by assuming that a well-known actor with ill-defined superpowers will suffice to keep the movie engaging when it obviously need more.