Review of Spawn (1997) by Liukang95 — 19 Dec 2009

Spawn: God was getting rid of the world's vermin, and I turned out to be one of them.

Spawn was one of those comic book movies that I remembered liking as a kid, however, after giving it another watch, sadly, it doesn't hold up to this day, now, I didn't read the comic books, but I did see the first few episodes of the animated series on HBO, and I thought the concept was good for a live-action adaptation, however, the way they translated it into live-action was poorly done.

Cogliostro: It's time.

The story centers around an assassin named Al Simmons (played by Michael Jai White) who has been murdered by his boss named Jason Wynn (played by Martin Sheen), and sent to the netherworld for his life as an assassin, however, he makes a deal with the devil Malebolgia (voiced by Frank Welker), that if he leads his army of spawns to the gates of Heaven and burn them down, he can see his beloved wife Wanda again, 5 years later, Al returns to Earth as the mysterious burnt superpowerful figure known as Spawn, looking over him is Malebolgia's assistant named Clown aka Violator (played by John Leguizamo), and a former assassin named Cogliostro, Spawn learns that Wanda is now married to his best friend Terry (played by D.B. Sweeney) and they have a kid named Cyan, now, Spawn decides to get revenge on Wynn for killing him and sending him to the afterlife.

Clown: Now stay sharp, the night is young.

Like I said earlier, the concept is good, and this movie does a good job in nailing the origin story, the costume/make-up designs are superb, especially Spawn's costume, it looks just like the costume he wore in the comic book/animated series, and the soundtrack is great, one of my favorite songs has to be the end credits song by Filter and The Crystal Method called "(Can't You) Trip Like I Do", the soundtrack contains tracks by two artists/groups per track such as Stabbing Westward featuring Wink, Orbital featuring Kirk Hammet, Marilyn Manson featuring The Sneaker Pimps, and KoRn featuring The Dust Brothers, each track is fun to listen to, however, those are the only 3 things I like about this movie, now onto the flaws, the special effects are terrible, I understand that this was released in 1997, but come on, movies like Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Timecop, and Mortal Kombat came out around 1991-1995 and they had great effects for the time, there is no excuse for the CGI in this movie to look this bad, however, I will admit, Spawn's cape is one of the only good CGI shots in the movie, the acting/dialogue is very cheesy and over-the-top, now, don't get me wrong, Michael Jai White is a decent casting choice for Al Simmons/Spawn, but his delivery is so bad, however, it's not his fault, at least he tried, but the worst actor in this movie has to be Martin Sheen, most of the time, he sounds like a drug addict, and he's very wooden at times, this movie tries to be a little too kid-friendly at times, they decided to give Spawn a pet dog and a kid friend, which is not needed considering the fact that Spawn is supposed to be a dark, mysterious, and depressed character, also, the attempt at humor from John Leguizamo as Clown fell flat in it's face, sure, he was a sick freak in the comic book/animated series, but he never did something like dance around in a cheerleader outfit like in this movie, the action scenes in this movie are not so great, they're either rushed, or not that memorable, especially the final battle in the netherworld.

Clown: Look who was left in the oven too long.

Overall, Spawn is not good, but it's certainly not horrible, if you plan to watch this, I suggest having a drinking game to this, it would be great if they remade this movie (although I heard they're doing that, but I don't know when is it coming out).

Al Simmons: Let's get it over with.

My rating: 4/10.