Movie Plot – Spawn: An elite mercenary is killed, but is resurrected from hell as Spawn, a reluctant soldier of the Devil.
Director: Mark A.Z. Dippé
Writers: Alan B. McElroy, Mark A.Z. Dippé
Cast: Michael Jai White, John Leguizamo, Martin Sheen
A dark anti-hero
Michael Jai White is not the best actor there is, but he was a good choice to put himself in the shoes of the tormented Al Simmons and his alter-ego Spawn. Despite that, the character Spawn is a character with a dark story. You may know Michael Jai White from the Arrow tv show, or even from the pencil trick scene in the Dark Knight.
I don’t know much about Spawn myself, although I am a comic book fan. With that said, I don’t know all the superheroes. So I would also not know if this is a good translation of the character, but in itself, it does not matter for now. The highlight of the film for me was his outfit.
Of course, the effects are still very 90’s, but I thought it was pretty ok when we talk about his outfit. It looked really impressive, dark, and scary. Unfortunately, this was the only highlight for me.
I had a hard time watching
This film was released in the same year as Batman & Robin, and I must confess that I found this much worse. It was so bad, it may even be my worst number one comic-book movie of all time. Some may think I’m exaggerating, but I’ll explain why.
First of all, many say that this movie has aged poorly. Personally, this is the first time I have seen it, but I can understand why. A lot of special effects are used, and some scenes just look like a Playstation 1 cut scene. Especially when the scenes are in hell, these are just awful.
The interactions felt as if they were acting on stage. When I saw Martin Sheen, I had hoped, but even he plays his role very unnaturally. The only one I could bear was Spawn himself, played by Michael Jai White.
The film opens with a narrator, which you will hear back from time to time during the film. And a rather boring storyteller who tells very basic things. It’s as if he tells the opening scenes in a very standard monologue for dummies. That gave me a headache.
The Clown …
What I had the hardest time with was the clown. I just couldn’t stand him, not at all. This made this film so hard for me to watch. There were ridiculous scenes with him as the cheerleader or even the shovel. And I thought on my own, why? Just check out this video:
And he often appeared in the film. Is this about Spawn or that stupid annoying clown?
And I’ve already said that the scenes in hell were bad, but I’m going to add to my little rant. Hell in itself is made super bad, never seen such a terrible thing. On top of that, there is a big devil (Satan?) that looked like a video game character. Every time he was talking, his lips didn’t even move. His mouth just stayed open. Cringe, cringe, cringe.
Conclusion
I will never watch Spawn 1997 again. However, I hope they will make their reboot as they once announced it, as it will stare Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Renner.
Topazzi World 