Arthur Poppington is a more-or-less normal, everyday guy, except for one small thing - he dresses up at night to fight injustice as the masked avenger Defendor.
Whereas Kick-Ass starts with almost an identical premise and then follows that idea to its craziest extreme, Defendor goes completely the other way, giving us a gritty, moving, very human story of a guy trying to make a difference in his mostly sad and lonely existence.
Arthur's reality is a lot darker than Dave's for one thing. He's a bit slow in the brains department, lost his mother because of her drug habit, never met his father and was raised by his grandfather (who died 26 years ago). He ekes out an existence by working with a road-crew - holding up stop signs - and lives in a workshop, because he doesn't like the homeless shelter. Yeah, boo-hoo Bruce Wayne.
The loss of his mother is what drives him - he wants vengeance on "Captain Industry" - the drug dealer who took his mother away and killed her. Comic-books are Arthur's only pleasure, so, naturally, he becomes a super-hero in order to bring Captain Industry to justice.
The thing is, there is no "Captain Industry". It's all in his mind thanks to a misunderstanding about something his grandfather told him when he was young (not really a spoiler - we learn this very early on), although thanks to Kat, a hooker he befriends (Kat Dennings), Arthur believes he's finally on the trail of the nefarious Captain - in reality a local Serbian mobster.
What follows is quite a touching and moving examination of the misguided, delusional, but ultimately heartfelt and well-intentioned actions of a deeply damaged human being.
This is no parody or spoof, make no mistake. This is quite a dark film in many ways, showing us a life eked out on the edges of society, amidst prostitution, drug addiction and violent crime by damaged people crippled by circumstance, betrayal, mistrust and loneliness. But it's also quite funny at times and a warm heart beats at its centre, despite the grim reality it portrays. And it finishes with pretty much the same message as Kick-Ass - that those that stand up to the evils of society are to be applauded and admired, not ridiculed and ostracised.
One quite refreshing thing about the film is that many of the supporting characters react quite warmly to the clearly mentally disturbed Arthur - even the police, judges and psychiatrists he comes into contact with react sympathetically - like real, thinking, feeling human beings might, rather than with the stock Hollywood meanness so typical in these kinds of situations.
The mobster plot is not the strongest part of the film, but it's functional and serves its purpose - to motivate and propel Arthur's story, and it does that well. The supporting cast are all on good form, including Elias Kotias as a slimy, bent undercover cop and Kat Dennings as the crack-whore with a heart of gold (Defendor's "Lois Lane"). I hadn't seen her in anything before, but now I love her. Even with the crack-whore black eyes thing.
This is Woody Harrelson's movie though and he's superb here. He's subtle, sympathetic, moving and thoroughly believable as the clearly not all there, but ultimately decent and likeable Defendor.
It isn't nearly as much fun or as energetic as Kick-Ass, but if you're looking for a really good, more down-to-earth movie about real-life people dressing up as superheroes, then this might just be the film for you.
Recommended.