Review of Spawn (1997) by Ashley H — 18 May 2013

Truly awful.

I'm a fan of Spawn, and feel the basic elements could have made a great movie, but unfortunately this attempt to adapt the characters falls far short of what it could have been.

The is handled more akin to a children's cartoon series, rather than giving much serious time to its main character's mortal life as Al Simmons, his betrayal, death and his deal with a demon to return as a hell-spawn. Instead these events are glossed over, with the deal being made instantly. We are instead subjected to seemingly endless scenes featuring the Clown, a ugly, fat and flatulent demon who seems intent on eliminating any serious attempt by the film to go anywhere. The entire film is practically dominated by this character's badly rendered, and entirely irrelevant, antics, to the point that the overall plot of stopping hell's armies, or of Spawn letting go of his past life, are largely obliterated.

Even the action sequences don't offering any relief, as most are comically bad, with no intensity or pacing, simply lurching between bad dialogue lines and brief, unremarkable bouts of violence that don't achieve anything. The dialogue is easily one of the worst features of the film, with no genuine discourse between any of the characters, mostly just a lot of people talking at each other, while ignoring any reply. Throw in some generic "black guy" comments for Spawn and you'll be lucky to finish the film without being stuck in a permanent grimace from cringing.

The only real good point to the film is that the physical effects are well realised, with special mention going to the burned body of Spawn, and his iconic body armour, which are both done to an extremely high standard far in excess of the rest of the film's dire, non-physical, effects.

If you're looking to see a Spawn story adaptation then stick to the animated series and give this a miss, or try Robot chicken's sketch, which is also far better than this film.