SPAWN (New Line) Starring: John Leguizamo, Michael Jai White, Martin Sheen, Theresa Randle. Screenplay: Alan McElroy, based on the comic book by Todd McFarlane. Producer: Clint Goldman. Director: Mark A. Z. Dippe'. MPAA Rating: PG-13 (violence, profanity, adult humor) Running Time: 97 minutes Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Once upon a time, many years ago when the earth was still young, I read comic books. In fact, I read them quite avidly. I attended comic book conventions, kept my collection in acid-free boxes and bought the Overstreet Price Guide every year. I remember the fervor with which comic book fans defend their favorite characters, and the excitement generated by the first film appearance of a character.
My first encounter with this phenomenon from the other side of the philosophical fence came when I dared to give only fleeting praise to 1994's THE CROW. From the reactions of the film's fans, you would think not only that I had challenged the film's artistic merit, but also that I had performed an excretory act on Brandon Lee's grave. The idea for the story, I felt, was intriguing, the execution merely competent. And the wrath it raineth down.
Now I steel myself once again, because folks, SPAWN ain't even _that_ good.
Anyone familiar with THE CROW is going to experience a bit of conceptual deja vu with SPAWN. The hero, in this case a government agent named Al Simmons (Michael Jai White), is murdered, in this case by his megalomaniacal boss Jason Wynn (Martin Sheen). The hero returns to earth, compelled by a desire to reunite with his beloved (Theresa Randle), and finds himself endowed with supernatural powers to assist in the wreaking of his vengeance, powers in this case provided by the devil in exchange for Simmons -- now Spawn -- leading the Army of Darkness to the Apocalypse. A goading little demon called Clown (John Leguizamo) is around to make sure Spawn keeps his end of the bargain; a benevolent eternal warrior named Cagliostro (Nicol Williamson) acts as the little angel on the other shoulder.
At its best, SPAWN does provide some genuinely eye-catching visual effects for its titular character. Spawn's body armor is perfectly rendered, sprouting all manner of computer-generated weaponry and a billowing red cape as necessity demands. Leguizamo also provides entertainment value by tossing off crude gags between bouts of flatulence. At its worst, SPAWN provides the kind of horrid acting often excused in genre films with the description "campy," with half the cast (White, Sheen, Leguizamo) doing gutteral line readings (because the Forces of Evil always talk like Mercedes McCambridge in "The Exorcist") and the other half (Randle, Williamson, D. B. Sweeney) standing around looking befuddled. It also offers a decidedly Sony Play Station vision of hell, and a script which doesn't bother to give the main character a life before it gives him an afterlife.
Most of the time, however, SPAWN is neither at its best nor at its worst. It is merely redundant, a now-familiar plot of gloom-soaked heroism decked out with the expected trappings of perpetually rainy alleys, Gothic spires and a couple of explosions. I'm not familiar enough with the time line of recent comics to know whether "The Crow" pre-dated "Spawn" in comic book form, but it doesn't really matter. Viewers of SPAWN may find a few new and improved special effects, but everything else is re-used and recycled; even Leguizamo's performance as Clown seems like a slightly more scatalogical spin on Nicholson's Joker.
Comic books may have picked up a certain improbable cachet when they started referring to themselves as "graphic novels," but that attitude has merely resulted in a different kind of creative rut. It's like graphic grunge rock, where an energetic and invigorating first wave has given way to endless imitators who can't seem to lighten up and stop whining. Even when screenwriter Alan McElroy tries to temper the angst with glib quips, the result is something strictly for fans of the new and improved special effects. Or, perhaps, for die-hard SPAWN fans who may be preparing an effigy of yours truly even as we speak.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 hell raisers: 4.
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