Rating of
3/4
"Darkman" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 02/09/12
A scientist hideously disfigured during an attack on his lab utilises the synthetic skin he was working on to wreak bloody vengeance on the criminals responsible. Batman meets The Phantom Of The Opera in this superhero-horror hybrid from Sam Raimi that can be seen as the stepping stone from Evil Dead 2 to Spider Man. This is clearly where he learned the ropes of making the modern superhero film and although lacking the slickness exhibited by the Marvel franchise, Darkman still has plenty to commend it. It has a rather blacker heart than the usual masked avenger movie, Raimi exploring the idea of a "hero" that is more borderline psychotic than a brooding loner and far more interested in pure revenge than justice. It's a little rough around the edges and Liam Neeson was a slightly odd casting choice but it has a lot of Raimi's trademark B-Movie flourishes and although less humorous than a lot of his other projects, still has some real laugh out loud moments. I think more could've been made of the character and his state of mind but it cracks along at breakneck pace with come nice action set pieces and compared to its contemporaries (namely the Crow and Batman) it has dated rather well.
