Spawn (1997)
Starring: Michael Jai White, John Leguizamo, Martin Sheen, D.B. Sweeney, Nicol Williamson, and Theresa Randle.
Reviw by Laurence Mixson(venom8@hotmail.com)
*** out of ****
Finally, after years and years of waiting, the moviegoing public gets a good film based on a comic book. You do, of course, recall the
awe-inspiring stupidity of Punisher, the wretched horribleness of
Captain America, and you will cringe in mortal terror by
remembering another recent summer release, Batman and Robin. But since
this is a GOOD movie, I won't dwell on those embarassments of cinema.
I'll move right on to Spawn.
If you're a comic book reader, you probably already know the story of how Spawn came to be. But for those who don't, I'll give a quick synopsis of the first 15 minutes or so of the movie. Basically, Al Simmons(Michael Jai White) is an assassin at some secret government base, kind of like the CIA. He is happily married to Wanda(Theresa Randle), who he loves dearly. His partner is Terry Fitzgerald(D.B. Sweeney) a computer geek. After completing a successful assassination of a US enemy and killing lots of civilians in the process, Simmons grows a conscious and decides to quit. But not before he completes one last mission, his boss, Jason Wynn(Martin Sheen) tells him. Al agrees. Little does he know that the mission is a set-up, and that Wynn has cut a deal with the devil, Malebolgia, who is represented by the fould-mouthed Clown(John Leguizamo). Malebolgia has given Wynn power in exchange for a deadly chemical weapon. Now he wants something else: a person to lead his dark forces in the apocalypse between heaven and hell. He orders Wynn to kill Al Simmons so that Al will go to hell(assassins don't go to heaven), thus giving Malebolgia a leader. Wynn agrees, and it's goodbye Al. When Simmons is killed, he wake up in the dark pit of hell and hears a voice asking him if he'll lead the dark armies on earth in exchange for being able to see Wanda. Al agrees, and is returned to earth. But a few things have changed... 1)His body is badly burned, although he now has a special costume and cool chains that come out of his body. 2)Malebolgia has returned him to earth 5 years later. 3)He now has Clown and Count Cogliostro(Nicol Williamson) following him around. Clowin is trying to persuade him to hell's side, while Cogliostro is wooing him to heaven's side. Of course, now Simmons is unpresentable to Wanda, who has married Terry, and had a child together, Cyan. Plus Clown is trying to get him to kill Jason Wynn, because Wynn has a device in his heart so that if his heart stops, the chemical weapon he developed for Malebolgia will go off, killing a lot of the earth's population and giving a chance for the dark armies of hell to cross onto earth. Now you're confused, right? Don't worry, the movie lays it out in a way so that you always know what's going on. Of course, for a movie like this to work, it has to have 2 things: good characters and good FX. On the first note, everyone is excellent in their acting, but John Leguizamo stands out as being the hilariously evil Clown. On the second note, the FX are terrific. Wait till you see the battle in hell between the Violator(the hideous and bigger half of Clown)and Spawn. If you have any reservations about seeing this movie, then throw them away. It's the best film playing right now out there, and the 3rd best movie this summer(it falls short of Con Air and Face/Off). Go see this movie.
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