Spawn (1997)
Released in 1997, Spawn is a comic book movie based on comics of the same name by Todd McFarlane. It follows CIA operative Al Simmons who returns from Hell after being assassinated by his superior, striking a deal with one of the rulers of the infernal regions in exchange for leading his army. Michael Jai White plays the lead character, one of the first Black actors to play a major superhero at the time. Despite grossing above its production budget, it opened to majoritively negative reviews and still isn’t held in high esteem by many.
~
I’d never heard of or seen this film before, but I thought it might be a good watch for spooky season after picking it up for free recently. Visually the film is a work of art and I think it had alot of potential - but there’s much that could’ve been cut too, and both the acting and script are fairly weak. I wasn’t a fan of the Clown at all; his characterisation relied heavily on gross humour which by preference isn’t something I enjoy, though I have seen other characters execute it better like Beetlejuice. I think sometimes a concept works better on paper, and though I haven’t read these comics I can imagine they are enjoyable in that format.
~
It was exciting to see some Buffy alumni in the film, including Robia LaMorte who was Jenny Calendar and Melinda Clark who was Science teacher turned Mantis Natalie French. Some changes were made between the comics and the film version, including the fact Simmons CIA partner Terry Fitzgerald was originally Black too, but was switched for a white character as the studio didn’t want too many Black leads in this film incase it seemed it was being marketed towards a specific demographic - and we’ve definitely seen this racist narrative before, of white characters being added because within our white supremacist society media must be relatable to white people.
~
This is the Directors Cut, offering an extra 45 minutes of footage, and I haven’t seen the standard version so I can’t comment on whether this works better. Lots had to be cut during the production of the movie so that it would be rated PG-13; it was consistently given an R rating because of the subject matter and Todd McFarlane wanted it to be accessible to all audiences, so this version is more in line with Todd’s original vision.
~
The special features includes a behind-the-scenes view, narrated by Michael Jai White, exploring everything from prosthetics to computer animation and bringing Todd McFarlane’s work to life. There’s also an interview with Todd, a trailer, and music video for ‘(Can’t You) Trip Like I Do’ by The Crystal Method and Filter which can be found on the album that coincided with this movie alongside songs by many rock artists. It’s really amazing to see the hours of work that went in to creating the special effects and I enjoyed the way this was blended with live action.
~
For its merits, it also has many flaws, and Michael Jai White himself has even been quoted saying he isn’t a fan of the film despite playing the lead character in it. A sequel has been in the works for decades but failure after failure has meant it still hasn’t come to fruition. I think some things just don’t transfer well to film, and it all depends on the creative team backing the work too. I think the movie still holds its place as a cult classic, even though there is so much that could’ve been improved.
