Who is Darkman! I remember being a kid and seeing the trailer for this film, and hearing that one line over and over again. Needless to say, I was very big into comic books when this film hit theaters especially the likes of Batman and The Punisher. Darkman reminded of Batman in a way, and I can remember being really excited to see it. I never got to see it in theaters though, because of it’s R rating. That disappointed me, but I did however get to see it on video, because I bought the VHS copy the day the film came out. I still have it too. Anyhow, Just last week I was surprised to find the trilogy sitting in a box on my front pouch. It was quite a surprise so I decided to pop the disc’s in right away and relive this film all over again.
It’s funny because as a kid I loved this movie so much I would of given it a four star rating back them, however after years of studying film, you learn to find flaws and humble yourself from being a fan boy.
Darkman, says it all about his character, because not only does he use the dark as his ally to get revenge on those who did him wrong, his soul is also full of rage and darkness. The film is about a scientist named Dr. Peyton Westlake (Liem Neeson), whom is working on creating an artificial skin for burn victims or people who need skins graphs for whatever condition they may have. He is on the verge of a scientific breakthrough with his studies, when a high profile gang breaks into his lab and tears the place apart. Peyton is burned really bad during the break in, and is bought to a hospital to recover. While there no one knows his name or where he came from. After recovering for a while he leaves the hospital and goes back to his lab and begins the process of his research all over again. However his mind is being filled with rage full feeling and his hunger for revenge grows. He then begins to become a vigilante of sought tracking down the ones who did this to him. Using his knowledge of making artificial skin, he creates masks of the criminals and sets them up against one another. All while plotting out their demise and deaths.
Darkman was created and directed by Sam Raimi, whom if you don’t know by now is the man behind the wheel oft the Spider-man movies and also the director of the cult hit Evil Dead trilogy. You can that Darkman is Raimi’s first superhero film, and because it was done so well, I think it might of had a say on him getting the job on the Spider-man flicks. Raimi’s direction in Darkman is very good, and is reminiscent of his own style.
The script is pretty good. It was written by Raimi, his brother Ivan and Chuck Pfarrer. The script has great character development, which helps make the plot of the film that much more appealing. The research that went into the science behind how one might go about producing artificial skin was very well planned and throughout. I however was partically found of how Darkman came to be, and after the terrible suffering he endures at the hands of criminals. He is able to take his work and use it to his advantage, in helping him get his revenge.
The acting is actually pretty decent in this flick. It’s obvious who performance stands out the most and that’s Liem Neeson as Darkman. The guy is a true talent, and Darkman was one of the roles that helped propel the actor into A list status. Actor Larry Drake is good in the role of Robert Durant, the crime lord in this film, however I always used to stay up late as kid and watch L.A. Law where he played a loveable disabled man named Benny. Which will probably be the part he’ll be best remembered for. However as of the past seventeen years or so he has been cast as villains in quite a few films besides Darkman, but every time I see him in a role I always see Benny from L.A. Law, so it’s hard for me to take him as a serious villain. Still though he was convincing none the less, but he didn’t scare me into thinking he was badass. The rest of the cast is pretty good which includes Frances McDormand, Ted Raimi and Colin Friels.
The overall production values is also pretty good, the sets and visuals represent that of the character, His lab is dark and gloomily like he is, and all the scenes in which Darkman appears seem to also be dark. The effects are very good as well. There is not really any CGI in the film, heck I’m not sure if there is any at all. But the make-up effects are great in this film and there is even a stop-motion scene of Darkman’s hand. which if you’ve seen Evil Dead, you know Raimi likes to add stop motion stuff to his films.
Darkman is one of those of those action films that fared decently at the box office and did pretty well overseas. It spawned two direct to video sequels and the whole trilogy is now available on DVD from Universal Home Video. I for one really enjoyed this film, not so much as when I was younger, but it still fares as a great film.
Trivia Tidbit: Sam Raimi considered casting his buddy Bruce Campbell in the part of Darkman, but the producers didn’t feel that Campbell would be able to pull it off.
– Horror Bob
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