spawn the movie 1997

Black superheroes being notoriously undermarketed, the appearance of Spawn in a studio production is something of a triumph. Though the film, directed by former ILM animator Mark A. Z. Dippe, hints at the moral and political complexities that saturate Todd McFarlane's comic book series, it doesn't quite achieve the spectacular malevolence and melancholy of its source (scaled back to accommodate a PG-13 rating). Al Simmons (martial artist Michael Jai White) is a U.S. military assassin who's initially murdered by his power-mad superior (Martin Sheen) and then resurrected by a satanic dragon-dog, so he can lead an evil underground army against humanity. Desperately yearning for his wife, Wanda (Theresa Randle, stuck playing the victim here), the reborn Spawn is needled relentlessly by Clown (John Leguizamo, who delivers some very funny one-liners from inside a mountain of makeup, prosthetics and digital distortions) and advised by a veteran of such abuses, another former killer (Nicol Williamson) wandering the same hellish landscape. Driven by gorgeous digital effected set pieces (put together by over 21 companies, most prominently ILM) and an electronic-based soundtrack (which takes a cue from the famous Judgment Night soundtrack in its coupling of ostensibly incongruous acts, like Marilyn Manson and the Sneaker Pimps, Henry Rollins and Goldie, Metallica and DJ Spooky), the movie is too crowded with go-nowhere, potential ideas (lethal virus, U.S. imperialism, media watchdogging, racial and international conflicts) and too content to let its awesome FX carry the essentially lame storyline. Still, Clown's grotesque jokiness is entertaining, the visuals are often stunning, and the concept is worth another shot (more so than the tired business that the Batman franchise has become, for sure).