I could describe this movie two ways, and people wouldn't know I was talking about the same one until the ending. One of the darkest comedies, that constantly jumps between sad and funny but sad.

good

Stupid is as stupid does...and fighting crime with a VCR duct taped to your back is pretty stupid. Harrelson gives a good performance in this combination of Forrest Gump and Kick-Ass, but the film falls disappointingly short of its potential by refusing to commit fully to either the cartoon fantasy or the tragic reality of the situation.

reviews, story, W Harrelson

Really excellent story telling, and superb acting from the whole cast. A much better film than the Dark Knight.

the script doesn't quite live up to the idea of woody harrelson the retarded vigilante and his crack whore sidekick, but it's still a sweet story.

Peter Stebbings puts a character who is a bit slow in his head and has a superhero complex into a world of 90's crime b-movie world, with stereotypical bad guys and their masterplans. Thing is, the lead character, well performed by Harrelson, is the most realistic thing in the film. Is it the smart way of the director to show how our superhero sees the world? It might be so. But either way, this is entertaining and touching film.

Where Kick-Ass (apparently) plays it for laughs, Defendor makes it pretty clear that this superhero is a tragic figure and takes itself unusally seriously: there is nothing funny about watching a man who should probably be under mental care get the crap kicked out of him by a bunch of highly amused drug dealers. But the thing is, the city is flooded with drugs and sex slaves and guns, and the police are unable to do anything about it. So isn't a superhero what people need?

Harrelson is brilliant

Woody Harrelson is very good in the lead role. This is an interesting story about a man who believes he is a super hero. The supporting cast is alright, the main reason to watch this movie is for Harrelson's performance.

Elias Kostas is Robert DeNiro...if Robert DeNiro was a thin Joe Pesci.

We've gotten to the point where subverting the superhero genre has become a genre unto itself, but I like Defendor's ideas, unoriginal though they may be. This is one of many recent "Joe Average tries to be Batman" movies, but it's got something the others don't: Woody Harrelson. The lead performance is engaging (Woody being careful as to never go "full retard"), and the film flirts back and forth between a straight-faced drama and a dark comedy. The gadgets are ingenious, the ending is not.

Very enjoyable. I didn't go into this expecting too much, but got completely engaged and fell in love with the character. Harrelson shows the heart that you forget he can bring to a character until you watch him in something like this. It definitely needs to be seen by more people.

The first third of the movie so was pretty hilarious, but by the end it descended into a semi-predictable cop drama. Obviously the joy of the film is watching Woody Harrelson act the damn fool. When we lose that, the story isn't really that interesting.

Definitely more of a crime-drama than it is a comedy. It isn't a masterpiece, but it certainly exceeded my expectations. Many solid performances turn this simple, and otherwise average, movie into something somewhat special.

Confusing, kind of mean spirited (ala Super) vigilante flick. It's no Kick-Ass but it's not terrible.

Somewhat confused premise, but nonetheless entertaining and emotive

What a shame. This movie could've been fantastic. This movie flipflopped over and over and over whether or not it wanted to be a comedy or a serious, violent drama, and that is the major flaw. The serious drama parts are awesome and exactly what the movie should've been, the comedy comes out of nowhere and destroys the pacing the movie was building up. Comedy would've been good too but they just sort of went half and half and it's a schizophrenic affair at best. Very watchable though.

You will be reminded of Forrest Gump through the whole movie and Woody fix the role quite well too. The movie wants you to bond with the main character for all its worth, and partly succeeds. The story itselfs is quite cheap and nowhere near its big brother.

Harrelson and Koteas (dirty cop) makes this one watchable till the end. Forrest Gump meets Batman is a neat idea but, the execution of this idea is terrible. Jokes are not funny enough, the main girl is not likeable (though it seems like it should be, I couldn't see any intention of making her an unlikable character but it just happened obviously), it's too long, has too much unnecessary scenes... Trailer is, once more, better than the movie, sadly.

For all its aspirations, the film never meshes into something cohesive or substantial. Its naive earnestness has its charms, but like its title character, Defendor never takes flight.

Spin off of the Watchmen movie, Rorschach's son becomes a super hero, is also mentally retarded.

this could have been ALOT better, shame as Harrelson again plays an excellent role of a 'hero'!

Interesting concept but totally predictable and follows the usual character archetypes and situational cliches. Hooker with a heart of gold in 2009? No thanks. Also, in a film about a "real" costumed hero it was a mistake to make the villains out to be more like action film caricatures than any sort of real criminals. The writing also revisited the childhood abuse theme a little too much and it probably would have been far better if the mental issues of Defendor were left ambiguous.

Harrelson is amazing and he's very funny here. Koteas is, as always, the bomb. Decent.

If it had been even more stripped down, less uplifting and unflinchingly raw, this could probably have been THE movie of the year. I believe that a neorealist superhero movie with a somewhat dim main character (picture him being beaten up, left on the street and walking senselessly around the city instead of being helped by his friends and a young hooker) could be something special. As it stands it is an amazing idea, but a disappointing execution.

Mix of genres may not be to everyone's taste, but it's funny, touching and at times surprisingly scary. Woody Harrelson plays extremely well and makes the hero touching and moving as well as a "hero" in his own way.

Beautiful and tragic, not a comedy, though there were moments of levity. Enjoyable mostly due to Harrelson's engaging performance, and Kat Dennings continues to find obscure underwritten characters and make them real people. Overall, worth a go.

Defendor wins hearts, but not minds. Harrelson and Dennings are charming in their roles, and Defendor's offbeat crime fighting techniques are amusing. However, the plot awkwardly juggles comedy and serious crime, with the latter carried out insincerely by an inappropriately light cast of characters. The comedy also feels exploitative, as many of the jokes are based on the mentally ill leads misinterpretations of the world around him. I enjoyed the film, perhaps a bit more than I should have.

Excellent movie that is made of pure win. Great acting, great drama and great humor (where it's appropriate). The fictitious town where the story takes place sucks you into it's world and it all works so well that it makes you feel a part of the fate of the protagonist. This movie is definitely worth all the attention it is getting, which is something that I can't say very often.

For some reason there is a rise in these "superhero with no power" movies and none of them have been particularly interesting, and this is no exception. Much like Special, it's another standard throwaway indie film. There is nothing really wrong with it, it's just not particularly memorable or great in any single way. It's also worth noting how hideous Kat Dennings is when she shows zero cleavage, unbelievable how her boobs blinded me to her face and terrible acting chops.

A bit more entertaining than Special is it's slightly more retarded cousin, Defendor. Harrelson is easy to watch in pretty much anything, and in truth he's probably the reason I enjoyed the film the small bit that I did. The story is awkward because it shifts thematically way too much, and the crime plot is just poorly conceived. Poor job of genre-juggling, I guess. Elias Koteas is great, though. Somebody needs to give him a lead anti-hero role in a ridiculous action/crime flick. He'd kill it.

Never comes off as a rejuvenation since the genre is far from dead, but I like these reinventions of the superhero genre; Unconventional without exploiting its deeply rooted core values and the characters are well portrayed, notably Harrelson as the likeable vigilante. A good time at the movies.

Harrelson and Dennings make this worth while.

A movie that hits home with it's uncanny sense of honesty and heart. Harrelson was born for this role and his subtleties worked wonders here. Sure you can whine about how the concept handled differently had masterpiece potential, but what's the fun in that?

Though Defendor isn't a masterpiece it is a brilliant piece of storytelling. It never condones or condemns vigilantism and it never presents it as glamorous. However it does present Defendor as likable and able to see the world in black and white; his below average IQ gives him this endearingly simplistic perspective (think Forrest Gump as a superhero). What you end up with is a touching tale of someone trying to make a difference in the real world as best they can.

The execution is flawed -- I seemed to be one step away from knowing what the hell was going on at any point in the movie, and Kat Dennings seemed one step away from a miscast. But it's certainly an original piece of work and Woody Harrelson plays an excellent vigilante manchild. Definitely worth a watch.

How is this labeled Comedy?