Review of Spawn (1997) by Stuart K — 02 Sep 2011
Based on Todd McFarlane's 1992 comic book creation, this was meant to be a dark antidote to the campness of the Batman films of the time. Instead, it turned out worse than those, no thanks to an incomprehensable script and ABSOLUTELY APPALLING CGI, which ruins the whole experience.
Is it any wonder stuff like this nearly killed off comic book films?? :-| It has mercenary Al Simmons (Michael Jai White), who does contract killings for an agency ran by Jason Wynn (Martin Sheen). However, Wynn betrays Simmons during a job in North Korea.
Simmons goes to hell, but The Devil (Frank Welker) makes him a deal. If Simmons leads his army into armageddon, he will let Simmons see his fiancee Wanda Blake (Theresa Randle). By the time Simmons returns, it's 5 years later, and his fiancee has remarried.
But, Simmons has a guide in the form of the clown like demon The Violator (John Leguizamo, looking like a cross between The Penguin and Krusty The Clown), but Simmons distrusts The Violator, and is seeking revenge on Wynn, but has help from Cogliostro (Nicol Williamson).
It's essentially Highlander in hell, but it should have been better, but this was from a time when Hollywood constantly fucked up comic books. The CGI is so bad, that even Playstation games from back then would have rejected it.
Leguizamo is simply annoying, and manages to ruin the proceedings. Is it any wonder it's being rebooted??
This review of Spawn (1997) was written by Stuart K on 02 Sep 2011.
Spawn has generally received mixed reviews.
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