SPAWN
RATING: * (out of ****)
New Line / 1997 / 1:37 / PG-13 (language, violence, disturbing religious overtones, crude sex humor) Cast: John Leguizamo; Michael Jai White; Martin Sheen; Theresa Randle; Melinda Clarke; Miko Hughes; Sydni Beaudoin; Nicol Williamson; D.B. Sweeney Director: Mark A.Z. Dippe Screenplay: Alan McElroy
"Spawn" features good guys, bad guys, lots of fighting, bloody violence, a leather-clad machine gun chick, gooey, self-healing bullet holes, scatological humor and a man-eating monster. It not only appears to have been tailor made for a swarm of 12- and 13-year-old boys, it appears to have been made by them.
In a classic example of telling and not showing, "Spawn" opens with a truckload of mumbo jumbo about forces of darkness, forces of light and how "men are the ones who create evil on earth." So much for a message. The movie then lurches forward into the plight of Al Simmons (Michael Jai White), a government assassin/operative who is murdered by diabolical boss Jason Wynn (Martin Sheen, who plays all of his scenes like an Oscar clip) while on a top secret mission in a North Korean biological weapons plant. Simmons goes to hell and back, after making a deal with Satan himself -- if he agrees to command the Devil's army to overtake the world, he'll be allowed to return to Earth to see his wife Wanda (underused Theresa Randle) and little girl Cyan (Sydni Beaudoin).
Of course, seeing as how five years has passed, Wanda has fallen for -- and married -- Simmons' partner (D.B. Sweeney). His, uh, shoulder to cry on comes in the form of Clown (John Leguizamo), a disgustingly disproportioned minion of Satan's. Clown manipulates Simmons, now in superhuman Spawn form, into a stand off with Wynn. Wynn, who thinks he is in league with the double-dealing Clown, recognizes Spawn as a threat and undergoes an operation where a bomb is placed on his heart -- when it stops beating, major cities around the world will detonate, causing the leak of a disease that "makes the ebola virus look like a skin rash."
Phew. Got all that?
It would be easy to dismiss "Spawn" as just another one of those heavy-on-FX, short-on-substance action pics, but it doesn't even work on that level. The computer-generated sequences are often and plenty, and the problem is that they look too computer-generated. The several scenes set in hell present a Devil that looks and acts like a video game graphic -- with the movie's healthy budget you'd think they could have afforded to make his mouth move when he talks. Other elements of the movie are so-so; Spawn's enormous red, flowing cape is a wonderful sight, but it's too obvious when he's being played by a costumed actor or an image. In movies like "Contact," the special effects serve the story. In "Spawn," they are the story.
And Spawn himself isn't even an interesting character. The film's reliance on razzle-dazzle would be acceptable if we were given somebody to root for, but both Simmons and his funky alter-ego are completely underdeveloped. What we need is a Batman, a Luke Skywalker. Even watching the adventures of Kleenex Man would be more interesting than Spawn.
Poor Leguizamo. He starred in February's "The Pest," a movie that I still think is the year's worst so far, although this one does give it a run for its money. As Clown, he overacts to the extreme, never missing an opportunity for a poor-taste punchline. Leguizamo farts green mist, munches a pizza slice covered with maggots and even dons a mini-skirt and performs a cheerleader routine, all before turning into a giant grey demon. The guy was brilliant in "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar." What is he doing wasting his talent in this and "The Pest"?
I'm one of the few people that liked "Batman & Robin," this summer's other big-budget comic book film. Yet after catching this movie and making the inevitable comparison, I can only hope people will change their minds and think of "Batman" as the superior adaptation. There's a compelling story somewhere in "Spawn" -- including strong religious overtones and the debut of the first African-American superhero ever -- but it's just not found anywhere near here. As it is, "Spawn" is just awful -- it stinks worse than a dead trout.
© 1997 Jamie Peck E-mail: jpeck1@gl.umbc.edu Visit the Reel Deal Online: http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~jpeck1/
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