Trailer:
“I’m everyone and no one—Everywhere and nowhere—call me Darkman.”
If you felt sorry for Two-Face, wait till you see Liam Neesan. It takes dedication to burn off ¾ of your face for a role. (I’m kidding of course)
Before Sam Raimi was brought on board to direct the critically acclaimed and box office hit Spider-Man, he got his first trial run with a superhero with the 1990 Darkman. He teamed up with the acting talent of Liam Neesan who would also return to the Superhero genre in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins.
During that time Raimi was most well known for his contributions to he horror genre and that aspect is far more apparent in Darkman than it ever was in Spider-man. The film is very melodramatic and isn’t afraid to get a little gory. This is of course a film about a man horribly burned and disfigured. It also keeps the dark undertones present in most early Raimi films. Raimi had been attempting to secure the rights for The Shadow or Batman but when that failed he decided to create his own hero, giving him free reign in artistic interpretation.
The film opens with Payton Westlake hard at work on a formula to create artificial skin. Unfortunately the formula is a failure and the life like masks break down and melt after only 99 minutes. A group of thugs come after him, looking for a memorandum that his attorney girlfriend left in his possession. Westlake’s lab is destroyed and he is left horribly burned and presumed dead. In truth Westlake has become disfigured and in an attempt to rehabilitate him, a hospital removes his ability to feel pain, also causing an adrenaline high and unstable emotions. Enraged at what has become of him, the mentally unstable Westlake sets off to get revenge on the men who ruined his life, while at the same time trying to perfect his skin tissue formula and “heal” himself.
The movies greatest strength and greatest weakness comes from the central concept. Darkman mainly uses his various masks to trick his victims and confuse his enemies. The fact that he can only remain in one form for 99 minutes adds a nice touch of tension. When they use this concept to its fullest the film is at its best.
The problem is that they don’t really use it all that much. The concept has a lot of potential and yet when the climax comes around, instead of relying on Darkman’s main talent, they instead dissolve down into a series of generic action scenes. Perhaps this isn’t so much a fault of the film as it is a disappointment. The action near the end IS well done but lacks certain level of creativity.
The films melodrama works well as most of the actors are talented enough to pull it off. The only time it becomes clumsy and silly is in the cinematography. Some overlapping image montages are almost laugh worthy. But Raimi still manages (for the most part) to up hold his dark, foreboding melodramatic style and make it function within the world of the story.
Liam Neesan does a great job as the central protagonist. He is likable and innocent at the beginning and believable as a twisted, violent, figure. It’s easy to buy into his inner turmoil and his shame at his own face. Considering one of the characters defining qualities is his unstable emotional state, it was a good choice to go with an actor with a lot of emotional range.
Unfortunately most of the other characters are fairly forgettable and the main villains big nastily plan is take over “real estate”. He must have apprenticed to Lex Luthor at some point. He is neither very intimidating, nor does he appear to be all that intelligent either. All he’s got going for him is some big arm muscle.
The film may have it’s silly moments and many characters are flat as a pancakes, but the film is still a lot of fun. It is carried tremendously by Liam Neesan’s performance and the interesting central concept. Raimi does well with the tone of the film, and probably would have been a good pick for a Batman film (not that I’m sorry Nolan got the gig). Darkman is still a dark, tightly scripted, action packed melodrama that delivers the thrills and at the end of the day, that’s what mattered here.
FINAL RATING: 7/10- (70%)
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