Spawn the film was released in 1997, adapted from the Spawn comic book series created by Todd McFarlane and published by Image. Todd McFarlane was involved in the film by working as an executive producer. EP’s are the single most important people in the making of a film; they get the funding and logistics together and decide to make a movie, and McFarlane was greatly involved in making the film adaptation of Spawn. Also serving as executive producer is Alan Blomquist. He has also been the producer of really great films like The Cider House Rules and Chocolat, while also producing films like the Blue Collar Comedy Tour and Larry The Cable Guy movies. Director and co-writer of the film was Mark A.Z. Dippe. He’s also done really cool stuff like visual effects for the movies Jurassic Park, Ghost, and Terminator 2: Judgement Day. But he’s additionally done weird stuff like visual effects for two Dr. Dolittle films, as well as directed three Garfield movies. So far that makes for an interesting crew.
On top of all that, the film is marked by having the first African American playing a leading comic book superhero in a large-scale motion picture. That character was portrayed by Michael Jai White who has been in other comic book movies such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze in which he makes a brief appearance, and the badass film The Dark Knight where he plays mob boss Gambol. Additionally he’s worked opposite notorious martial artists Steven Seagal and Jean Claude Van Damme; I think that’s pretty funny. The person who really stole the show though was John Leguizamo as Clown/Violator. He’s gross and awful most of the time, but you’re just transfixed by what he says. And then there’s Violator. When you see him transform, you are left speechless as to how this disgusting clown can also be this fearsome beast from the underworld. For its time, the special effects were very very good, especially the transformations, fights, and Spawn’s kick ass cape. Leguizamo’s career was kick started with the movie Super Mario Bros. (that also has a comic series) in 1993. He looks back on that experience badly but bravely, (and thankfully) he decided to try another comic related movie with Spawn which debuted four years later. How can you go wrong? The story is bad ass enough- a government agency betrayes its agent, Al Simmons, who is sent to hell, and Al accepts a deal to lead Malebolgia’s (basically the devil’s) army into Armageddon in order to see his fiancee Wanda again.
This film is certainly a product of the 90s. It opens with bad 90s dance-rock music and is cheesy in multiple ways. Clown even shamelessly references a popular tv show of the time: “A hospital? Have you looked in a mirror, burnt man walking? Even the entire cast of ER couldn’t put you together again.” When Spawn sees his healing powers for the first time he exclaims in a surprised tone “Daaaamnnnn,” and when his chains burst from his body to protect him from falling, and he develops the power to climb walls with his hands and feet he shouts, “Holy Shit!” The best quote of all is also spoken by Spawn, “Get away from me, you fudge packing midget!” The DVD’s scene selection menu has a cool “preview” feature, where you can watch the scene from it’s little window to make sure you have the right one before exiting the menu and playing it, which is pretty nifty. This movie was made during the pioneering days of films of this genre, so of course it isn’t perfect. However, the story and visuals are worth giving this one at least a watch!
The Movie Lady
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I remember goin to the theatre onpening night pretty damn excited and it was packed! For the most part I liked what I saw and was happy with the choice of MJW to play Spawn. He has real martail arts experience and pulls off pretty good fight scenes and he’s a decent actor as well. Clown did steal the show hands down! Theresa Randal as Wanda was a good choice as well…she’s hot! Frank Welker as Malebolgia’s voice was a great addition as well.
I was a little upset Terry got changed and didn’t seem as strong a character in the movie as Todd had written him in the books and I wasn’t too happy with Martin Sheen as Wynn. Again in the books he was darker and a lot more evil.
I didn’t like how they replaced Youngblood’s Chapel with that Priest character, but overall, I really dig this movie. The Spawn film franchise is long overdue for a reboot. I’m not a fan of remakes, but I would really like to see another Spawn movie soon.
I loved the movie back then. Hate it now 🙂 Great soundtrack though.
The cartoons made up for what this movie missed and they are by far superior.
I haven’t seen this movie since I was 13… I’d like to revisit it to see how it holds up.
I didn’t like the Chapel/Priest switch either…it just didn’t make any sense to do that.
And Dan I loved those HBO cartoons! It captured the spirit of the books a lot more than the PG rated movie.
To be honest, I didn’t like it then, and after seeing it recently, I don’t like it now. Oh well, different strokes for different folks.
Never saw this flick (or read the comic).