Spawn

Spawn: by The Buzzroom

Rating: 3 Stars

CAST
Michael Jai White - Spawn / Al Simmons
John Leguizamo - Clown / The Violator
Martin Sheen - Jason Wynn
Theresa Randle - Wanda Blake
D.B. Sweeney - Terry Fitzgerald
Mindy Clarke - Jessica Priest
Miko Hughes - Zack

Directed By Mark A.Z. Dippé

If I were about 12 or 13 years old, this would probably seem like the coolest movie in the world to me. I’m not. Todd McFarlane's popular comic book comes to the big screen with an enormous array of eye candy made by the fellas at ILM, and…well the movie is actually one of the few films that stays rather faithful to its comic-book origins. Why is it that comic-book movies are always condemned to being pieces of junk when they come to the big screen. I used to be an avid comic-book reader and loved the incredible stories of books like Spawn, X-Men, Spiderman, and Batman, and was so excited when they decided to make films based on characters like Batman, only to have my hopes crushed by a cheesy celluloid piece of trash. I was hoping that Spawn would overcome the damnation that Hollywood seems to place upon comic-books, never getting it through their thick heads that the films can appeal to those over the age of consent, and it does to an extent, but, as the comic, the characters are underdeveloped and the plot becomes sketchy at times.

The film does a decent job of living up to its dark premise about a double-crossed hero who returns from hell to enact vengeance and save mankind. The movie however mirrors much of what Todd MacFarlane has done with his comic-book antihero Spawn, a lack of character development and story that instead is replaced by incredible special effects. The script is halfway-decent but the film seems half-baked, possibly due to the film left on the cutting-room floor to satisfy a PG-13 rating. I guess that is why I get so upset with these films is that they insult the intelligence of the adults to satisfy teenagers and the public buys into it.

As Spawn, Michael Jai White does a decent turn as the "hero," but the lethal capabilities of his bio-armor and flashy cape, are what really rate high up on the wow meter. Leguizamo does a fiendishly good job as Spawn's arch-nemesis, Clown, the devil’s pudgy right hand imp, armed with a bevy of silly jokes that teenagers and children will only find humorous. Unfortunately, Spawn caters primarily to the primal reflexes of twelve-year-old boys, and spends alot of its screen time bogged down in ridiculous attempts at bathroom humor. It was much better than Batman and Robin though, and is definitely heading the comic-to-film genre in the right direction.

Official Spawn Website: http://www.spawn.com/film.html

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