{"id":4462,"date":"2012-07-07T23:14:32","date_gmt":"2012-07-08T06:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/?p=4462"},"modified":"2021-05-31T14:02:51","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T21:02:51","slug":"review-spawn-bd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/2012\/07\/review-spawn-bd\/","title":{"rendered":"Spawn Blu-ray Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Spawn<\/em><\/strong> is a poorly made feature film with campy, over-the-top acting, laughable visual effects, lousy editing and a choppy story that doesn\u2019t give the main character any sort of development. Simply put, this wasn\u2019t a very good adaptation of an otherwise, last I read anyway, cool comic book series.<\/p>\n

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\nSpawn (1997)<\/strong><\/p>\n


\nREVIEW NAVIGATION<\/strong><\/span>
\nThe Movie<\/a> | Special Features<\/a> | Video Quality<\/a> | Audio Quality<\/a> | Overall<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Genre(s): <\/strong>Fantasy, Horror, Drama
\nWarner Bros. | R \u2013 99 min. \u2013 $19.98 | July 10, 2012<\/p>\n

MOVIE INFO:<\/span>
\nDirected by: <\/strong>Mark A.Z. Dippe
\nWriter(s): <\/strong>Todd McFarlane (comic book); Alan McElroy and Mark A.Z. Dippe (screen story), Alan McElroy (screenplay)
\nCast: <\/strong>John Leguizamo, Michael Jai White, Martin Sheen, Theresa Randle, Nicol Williamson, D.B. Sweeney<\/p>\n

Theatrical Release Date: <\/strong>August 1, 1997<\/p>\n

DISC INFO:<\/span>
\nFeatures: <\/strong>Commentary, Featurettes, Sketch Gallery, Storyboard Comparisons, Music Video, Theatrical Trailer
\nNumber of Discs: <\/strong>1<\/p>\n

Audio: <\/strong>English (DTS-HD MA 5.1), German (Dolby Digital 5.1), Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0), Portuguese (Dolby Digital 2.0), Polish (Dolby Digital 2.0)
\nVideo: <\/strong>1080p\/Widescreen 1.78
\nSubtitles: <\/strong>English SDH, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
\nDisc Size: <\/strong>31.5 GB
\nCodec: <\/strong>MPEG-4 AVC
\nRegion(s): <\/strong>A, B, C<\/p>\n

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THE MOVIE<\/strong> \u2013 1.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I think it\u2019s reasonable to say that 1997 was not a very good year for comic book movies with the releases of Batman & Robin<\/em>, Steel<\/em> and our movie today, Spawn<\/em><\/strong>. No matter the source material, this is a downright bad movie filled with an annoying fat clown, non-existent character development, terrible visual effects and sloppy editing. Despite a half decent opening ($34M adjusted), audiences wised up and it fell of the face of the Earth before resurfacing on DVD under New Line\u2019s Platinum Series and an R-rated Director\u2019s Cut (versus the softened PG-13 version that was released to theaters).<\/p>\n

Based on the hit comic book that swept through the community back in 1992, Spawn<\/em><\/strong> stars Michael Jai White as Al Simmons, an agent working for the scrupulous Jason Wynn (MARTIN SHEEN), head of covert organization known as A-6 (we know he\u2019s bad because he smokes and has a sinister-looking goatee). Also a part of this agency is Simmons\u2019 best friend and partner, Terry Fitzgerald (D.B. SWEENEY). In Simmons latest mission, to take out some sheik as he got off a private jet in Hong Kong which resulted in killing innocent civilians, Simmons wants out and it seems Wynn is perfectly willing if he would take one last mission. We all know what happens from there: he\u2019s double crossed by Wynn and his right hand woman named Priest (MELINDA CLARKE), set on fire and literally burns in hell.<\/p>\n

Simmons makes a deal with the Devil: He will lead the Devil\u2019s army in exchange for seeing his wife Wanda. Not a great deal if you ask me given Wanda will suffer whatever fate is in store for humanity but that\u2019s just me. So Simmons returns after many years but to him it was all instantaneous. Wanda is now married to Terry with the pair having a kid together, Simmons\u2019 face is all kinds of messed up oh and he has a fat lard, foul mouth, farting midget clown following and taunting Simmons all the time.<\/p>\n

Simmons has an ally in a man called Cogliostro (NICOL WILLIAMSON) who serves as a mentor and guide to Simmons in his new life \u2013 whereupon he\u2019s called Spawn. He\u2019s basically somebody who knows the battle that is coming and hopes to turn Spawn from leader of the Devil\u2019s army to going on the good side, but first he must teach Spawn to control his rage and anger.<\/p>\n

You get the gist of this movie but frankly, this was supposed to be some cash grab than anything else. With a $40 million budget (with inflation that\u2019s $57.3 million in 2012) it obviously doesn\u2019t buy good visual effects \u2013 even for 1997 \u2013 which by today\u2019s standards, even on television, look laughably awful. However, that\u2019s hardly the problem with Spawn<\/em><\/strong>, instead the story is a mess to go along with a hodgepodge editing style which tries to emulate the transitions in the comic book and instead ruins any momentum not to mention just looks dumb.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t really bash the cast too much. Michael Jai White seems to have the right physique for the role but he doesn\u2019t have a hell lot to work with especially underneath a ton of burn-make-up underneath which means he has to emote far more than normal. Martin Sheen takes his villain role to hilt and probably wishes he had a mustache to twirl that would go along with his snide\/snarky laugh. And then there\u2019s John Leguizamo who received top billing for good reason since he has to put on 20 pounds of make-up and pretend he\u2019s in a Baz Luhrmann directed film. I would say he\u2019s the best part of the film but he\u2019s hardly a threat and is more annoying than enjoyable.<\/p>\n

Directed by Mark A.Z. Dippe (who would go on to direct 3 Garfield<\/em> DTV releases and The Reef 2<\/em>), Spawn<\/em><\/strong> is the type of film that leaves you scratching your head. Perhaps it\u2019s just not the source material that will translate into a live action feature film (especially given the animated series is, for the most part, well made) or maybe it\u2019s due to a restricted budget. Whatever the reason, this is simply not a very good movie. I wanted to like it because as a kid I was a huge fan of the comic book but it couldn\u2019t deliver.<\/p>\n

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SPECIAL FEATURES \u2013 2.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Save for some production notes, it appears all the features from the \u201cPlatinum Series\u201d DVD have been ported over…<\/p>\n

Feature Commentary<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 Creator Todd McFarlane, Director Mark A.Z. Dippe, Producer Clint Goldman and Visual Effects Supervisor Steve Williams provide an insightful track and they all seem to be on friendly terms horsing around but also giving information on the comic book and how different elements in the live action film came about. It should be noted that McFarlane was recorded separately and sticks mainly with the comic book to film aspects.<\/p>\n

The Making of Spawn<\/em> (21:57; SD)<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 This is a promotional featurette made for the Sci-Fi Channel as a way to advertise of film which means little info is going to be revealed. Now, there is some behind-the-scenes footage so it\u2019s not a complete waste.<\/p>\n

Todd McFarlane: Chapter and Verse (19:36; SD)<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 This is a 7-part featurette where the \u201cSpawn\u201d creator talks about various subjects including taking the comic book into live action and keeping the theatrical release at a PG-13 rating amongst other things.<\/p>\n

Scene to Storyboard Comparisons<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 Here you can check out different sequences including \u201cClown to Violator\u201d, \u201cViolator to Clown\u201d, \u201cCape\u201d, \u201cMask\u201d and \u201cViolator from Bookcase\u201d.<\/p>\n

Original Todd McFarlane Sketches<\/span><\/strong> is a selection of early concept drawings for the Spawn comic book.<\/p>\n

Spawn Concept\/Sketch Galleries<\/span><\/strong> provides pictures made for the movie and includes \u201cCostume Design\u201d, \u201cSet Decoration\u201d, \u201cCharacter Developments\u201d for Spawn, Clown\/Violator, Melabogia and Jessica Priest.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpawn: The Animated Movie\u201d Preview (1:43; SD)<\/span><\/strong> is something that I believe turned in an animated series.<\/p>\n

Also included are Music Videos<\/span><\/strong> for \u201cTrip Like I Do\u201d by Filter & The Crystal Method (4:28; SD) and \u201cLong Hard Road Out of Hell\u201d by Marilyn Manson and Sneaker Pimps (4:26; SD) plus the Theatrical Trailer (1:46; SD)<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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VIDEO \u2013 3.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Warner Brothers unleashes Spawn<\/em><\/strong> upon the world with a rough looking 1080p high-definition transfer. However, I don\u2019t think it looks bad and instead doesn\u2019t translate all that well onto Blu-ray because the film was darkly shot to give it a grim and dirty vibe so the amount of detail might not be the best and since a fair amount takes place in the dark or at night, some artifacts is present, though nothing too distracting. The colors are fine but per the visual style, it does tend to look oversaturated in places. As I said, this isn\u2019t a knock against the studio but it\u2019s not a pretty picture, though it\u2019s better than the DVD version…
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AUDIO \u2013 3.75\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The disc offers up a robust 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track which provides for some nice and clear dialogue levels through the center speaker but also some good depth during the action scenes which makes use of the other channels. The LFE channel could\u2019ve been a bit livelier but still decent enough.<\/p>\n

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OVERALL \u2013 2.25\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Overall, Spawn<\/em><\/strong> is a poorly made feature film with campy, over-the-top acting, laughable visual effects, lousy editing and a choppy story that doesn\u2019t give the main character any sort of development (I think Bruce Wayne in Batman & Robin<\/em> had better character development). Simply put, this wasn\u2019t a very good adaptation of an otherwise, last I read anyway, cool comic book series. Hopefully one day it\u2019ll get a proper, Batman Begins<\/em>-like, live action treatment but I wouldn\u2019t hold my breath.<\/p>\n

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The Movieman<\/em>
\nPublished: <\/strong>07\/08\/2012<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spawn is a poorly made feature film with campy, over-the-top acting, laughable visual effects, lousy editing and a choppy story that doesn\u2019t give the main character any sort of development. Simply put, this wasn\u2019t a very good adaptation of an otherwise, last I read anyway, cool comic book series.    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1589,21,699,1588],"class_list":["post-4462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blurayreviews","tag-d-b-sweeney","tag-john-leguizamo","tag-martin-sheen","tag-theresa-randle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4462"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26205,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4462\/revisions\/26205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}