Spawn - The Director's Cut (New Line Platinum Series)
IMAGINE A CREATURE ON THE VERGE OF CREATION. A CREATURE WHO MUST COME OUT OF THE DARK AND INTO THE LIGHT TO FIGHT FOR JUSTICE AND VENGEANCE. FROM FLESH TO STEEL. FROM BLOOD TO BLADE. FROM MAN TO SPAWN. TODD MCFARLANE'S COMIC BOOK SENSATION COMES TO LIFE IN THIS LIVE ACTION FILM. STUNNING SPECIAL EFFECTS IN THIS FILM.
After being murdered for quitting his role as a ruthless yet moral government assassin, Al Simmons (Michael Jai White) is sent to Hell, where he makes a pact with the demon Malebolgia--if Simmons is allowed see his lover, Wanda, again, he will agree to lead the demon's armies to storm the gates of Heaven. Transformed into a superhuman entity with shape-shifting powers and quick regeneration capabilities, Simmons (soon to be dubbed "Spawn" by Malebolgia's crony, The Violator) returns to Earth and attempts to reunite with Wanda, not knowing that five years have passed. He also seeks revenge on his former boss and killer, Jason Wynn (Martin Sheen), who has made a deal with The Violator to develop a lethal virus to take over the world, where Wynn is promised to be king. Spawn wages an inner battle between good and evil as he tries to come to terms with selling his soul and what it could mean for humankind. Despite excellent effects and great potential, Spawn seems to come up short. While White certainly displays verve in his characterization of the twisted hero, he cannot overcome some forced dialogue. On the flip side, the usually engaging John Leguizamo portrays the sinister Violator--an evil monster masquerading as a rotund, weird-looking clown--as an irritating lackey who spews overbearing sarcasm and incessantly banal one-liners. Admitted, many of Spawn's action sequences are fun, and the transitions effectively brisk, but more could have been done to explore how Simmons grapples with his humanity in these daunting circumstances. But if you want sizzling action sequences and digital effects, this film should keep you happy. --Bryan Reesman
Spawn - The Director's Cut (New Line Platinum Series) Accessories
Spawn - The Director's Cut (New Line Platinum Series) Reviews
Al Simmons, is a military soldier/assassin, who has been betrayed by a covert government agency head named Jason Wynn. Wynn orders his top assassin, Jessica Priest, to assassinate him. After Simmons dies, he is immediately transported to Hell, where Malebolgia, a demonic ruler of the various realms, offers him a Faustian deal. If Simmons becomes his eternal servant and leader of Hell's army in Armageddon, he will be able to return to Earth to see his beloved fiancee, Wanda Blake. And Simmons accepts the offer and is transformed into a Hellspawn, which is a servant of Malebolgia in a necroplasm suit that is not only a living, breathing creature, but is also his only protection in the world. Simmons, soon to be dubbed "Spawn" by Malebolgia's crony, The Violator, returns to Earth and attempts to reunite with Wanda, not knowing that five years have passed. He also seeks revenge on his former boss and killer, Jason Wynn, who has made a deal with The Violator to develop a lethal virus to take over the world, where Wynn is promised to be king. Very enjoyable to watch, and a great visual ride.
Great if you like random special effects that almost lead to nowhere, overblown production, alot of noise, and a bothersome unfunny clown that laughs at his own clueless jokes. One sickening pizza scene will make you think twice about when to eat when you decide to watch this movie. Even the dialogue seems forced. Spawn fans may be ultimately forgiving, one way or the other.
This is one of the most popular of the Afro-American comic book anti-heros. He is an ex-green beret type who leaves the service to work for a CIA type organization as an hit-man. Unfortunately his boss has delusions of power and grandure. He wants to quit, but his boss decides to liquidate him instead.the devil gets involved as he wants Spawn to lead an attack on Heaven. Of course then there is Spawn's wife and daughter and the fact that 5 years have past since he was sent to hell. There is also a diabolical clown involved and a beautiful female assisian.
Todd McFarlin, the creator of Spawn, is also heavily involved in the movie.
I had always had a weird curiosity about this movie but I didn't even remember it existed until recently when a friend mentioned it during a discussion. He basically told me it was one of the worst movies he had ever seen and it peaked my interest even more because it didn't look THAT bad from the previews I remembered.
The story/screenplay is laughable at best. The premise is cool and I know the actual comic book is much moe brutal and unrelenting(which is why this movie seemed like it had some hope, at least). The writers did a lot more telling than showing, however, and scenes like Spawn's "training" with Mr. old-guy-always-appearing-out-of-thin-air is just plain ridiculous. It took Luke years to gain even rudimentary knowledge of the Force in Star Wars and yet Spawn seems to learn how to use any ability he wants when a guy tells him that he has "trillions of nerves" he can control. Give me a break. Not only is this just plain bad writing, but the director doesn't even pass it off well by giving it at least some kind of weight. The scene takes all of a minute to develope and by the end Spawn is able to control more abilities than god just by "thinking" of performing the action. Awesome.
The actors are likewise a travesty. The guy who plays Spawn doesn't have a fully-developed acting bone in his body. Gritting your teeth and talking like you're a badd-arse from the streets of south-side Chicago doesn't constitute believability. Martin Sheene makes his son Charlie look like the best actor in Hollywood, but I don't really blame him. I'm sure the director told him to camp up his performance so as to appear like a sadistic madman. The problem is that nothing is developed with his character. He just starts out at "madman" and end's at "madman." The whole "Spawn fights for his gf" bologny is just as stupid. We never see them together and don't get any chance to inest feelings of compassion in either character. We just see a few flashbacks showing his laughable moments of closeness between Spawn and his cardboard gf. The Clown form of Violator was obnoxious and not even slightly funny. He goes from making harmless jokes that are PG-13 to R within the same sentence as well, which makes no sense. If he is going to be lude, make him lude the whole movie. If he is making jokes like Bob Saget, then let him do so for the whole movie. Mixing and matching just made no sense, as if he didn't want to offend poor Spawn. I don't know where to even begin on the other actors.
The story was terrible. I don't know if it follows the comicbook all that closelly, but I would certainly hope not. Even something like Batman or the X-men often gives a lot of good writing and useful sections that help see the true character of the heroes. Granted, comicbooks offer didactic "good vs. evil" montages, but they're generally done quite well. The whole scheme to get Spawn to command the armies of Hell wasn't needed. They could have easily made him do it from the get-go, before he decided to fight for "good". I know they needed some kind of plot, but there are much better ways to try and bring these characters together.
I was expecting some cool fight scenes at the very least. Violator is a great villian with a lot of potential, as are all of McFarlane's creations, the problem is that he is terribly portrayed yet again. He just runs around grabbing people instead of outright destroying them. He wouldn't toy with his victims by batting them around. Just freakin eat them or smash their faces in. Not only that, but how the heck does something that big and loud "hide" from Spawn on more than one occasion? Honestly. One chase scene doesn't even serve a purpose in the film other than to oblige action film fans who seem to think it's mandatory. Couldn't Spawn just fly around instead of riding a motorcycle? *sigh*
The effects for Violator and Spawn's chains/cape were pretty well done for 1997, I will say, but thats unfortunatelly the best part of the whole movie and that's not saying much. The effects usesd to create Hell were also poorly done. It looks more like a big red backdrop that someone threw a bag of Cheetos all over, it was not intimidating in any way(again, I think this was a poor choice by screenwriter/director to even include this setting when cg effects clearly weren't going to cut it in 1997).
It's not the worst movie I've ever seen, but it is certainly up there. From the terrible acting to the horrendous script to the poorly constructed "motivation" behind anyones actions, it's just a very bad film. I would hope that someone has the courage at some point soon to renew the interest in the franchise by making a legitimate film with todays technology. The most important part of any film to this day is still a great screenplay, however, and until we get that, this superhero has no hope. I only recommend this to filmmakers who wish to use it as a reference point for what NOT to do or avid fans of the comicbook.
There was so much material they could have used. They could have used the comics, taken the dialogue straight from the comics. They could have developed the villains better. They could have created interesting action sequences. Instead of bad computer graphics, they could have put men in rubber monster suits. It would have looked better.
I don't know. It just seems that there was a lot of money poured into this film, and though they tried to use new technologies to make it look good, it just didn't go down well. The dialogue is horrible, the acting isn't very convincing (even for a superhero movie) and in some cases just obnoxious, and the action sequences are just not very interesting.
Read the comic, but don't see the movie.
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