Darkman (1990)

Writer/Director: Sam Raimi
Genre: Action (superhero)

Although I still haven't quite figured out exactly what I'm doing with this blog thing, it seems to be getting me into the habit of writing without pain, so I'm going to keep going with it. Idiocracy was, I felt, the best movie to start with. Now I'm switching from Mike Judge to Sam Raimi.

For fans of the horror genre, Sam Raimi is a name synonymous with legend. Armed with little more than a handful of money and tons of obsessive desire, Raimi and a number of young crew members and actors set out to create The Evil Dead (1981), one of the most intense horror movies widely available at the time. From there, he became part of the horror community, following up with the far more comedic Evil Dead II (1987). Through these two movies, actor Bruce Campbell's shotgun-wielding, chainsaw-handed character Ash became an icon of 80's horror.

The Evil Dead movies eventually became a trilogy when Raimi gave us Army of Darkness (1992), but before that, he created a fairly obscure entry in the superhero genre, titled Darkman. Apparently Raimi had originally wanted to do a movie based on "The Shadow" radio program, but could not get the rights so he created his own character and designed it to look like a comic book adaptation, in a manner not explicitly similar to the more recent Milla Jovovich movie Ultraviolet (2006). Darkman is, I'm sure, one of those movies that helped win Raimi the job of director for Spider-Man (2002) and its sequels.

The easiest way to describe the setup with Darkman is to break it apart like any other comic book superhero storyline.

The (Anti-) Hero: Darkman, real name Dr. Peyton Westlake (Liam Neeson). Before his tragic event, he was a successful scientist working on a new formula for artificial skin, and he was engaged to hot young lawyer Julie Hastings.

The Villains: The villainy in this movie takes the form of a business partnership between a crooked real estate developer named Louis Strack, Jr. (Colin Friels) who works alongside badass mob boss Robert Durant (Larry Drake). Durant's gang is full of colorful characters, including Durant's own intern/implied gay lover Rick (Ted Raimi, the younger brother of Sam who makes frequent appearances in his movies).

The Damsel: Julie Hastings (Francis McDormand), a young blond lawyer who is getting ahead in life and about to be engaged to our hero, Peyton. Unfortunately for her, she also works for Louis Strack, and she has the misfortune of discovering a series of bribes being given from Strack Enterprises to the notorious Robert Durant, an action that leads into the tragic event.

The Tragic Event: Some important evidence of illegal activity within Strack Enterprises vanishes, so Louis Strack sends out Robert Durant and his gang to find it and eliminate any witnesses. Suspecting Dr. Westlake may have the information in his possession, Durant and company pay him a visit. The gang attacks, burn Peyton's hands, and kill his assistant. After smashing the place up, they leave behind a bomb that destroys the lab and all of the evidence, sending Peyton's severely burned body flying into a nearby river. Later, he is presumed dead, and a funeral is held in his honor. Julie goes into mourning.

The Aftermath: Peyton's body is found near the river, and he is assumed to be a homeless person. His body is horribly burned, and his face is near unrecognizable. The hospital uses him for some experimental surgery to try to ease his suffering, the result of which is Peyton's inability to feel pain. Additionally, his condition gives him a degree of superhuman strength because his body is constantly producing adrenaline. After regaining consciousness, Peyton breaks out of the hospital, finds some tattered robes and a dirty fedora, and manages to set up an advanced laboratory in an abandoned warehouse. From here, he continues his research on artificial skin and attempts to permanently cure his own near-skinless condition.

Abilities and Weaknesses: In addition to superhuman strength and feeling no pain, Darkman can create synthetic skin to allow him to look like virtually anyone, given enough preparation time. Unfortunately, the formula for the synthetic skin has a problem: it is extremely photosensitive, meaning that when exposed to light, the skin melts into formless goo after 99 minutes. As a further result of the explosion and his subsequent surgery, Peyton also experiences heightened emotions far more easily. As the movie progresses, he starts killing off members of Durant's gang, loosing another piece of his humanity with each execution.

One by one, Darkman takes out Durant's gang and Strack's business and prevents Julie from getting killed in the crossfire. While the major conflict with the villains is apparently resolved by the end of the movie, the life that Peyton Westlake lost when he became Darkman remains lost. This does, of course, set up the movie to either a serial or a series of sequels, the latter of which it did get. Darkman II: The Return of Durant (1994) and Darkman III: Die Darkman Die (1996) were released direct-to-video and produced by Sam Raimi, with actor Arnold Vosloo taking on the title role in Liam Neeson's absence. I have personally never seen either of these movies, as I like the way the story ends with the original.

Those of us who remember this movie when it was new recall how awesome it was for its own time. Although we could clearly see that a number of the special effects were more stylized than realistic, it was the action that made this movie a hit, along with Raimi's trademark stop-motion animation, colorful lighting and use of stock footage, all of which gave Darkman a genuine comic book feel. Neeson and Drake, playing hero and villain respectively, both give their characters an intense badassery (yes, that is a word now), something that was starting to fade from cinema when the 80's started becoming the 90's and big name action heroes, such as the iconic Arnold Schwartzenegger, were starting to shift from action movies to comedies.

Of course, Darkman doesn't have the special computer effects that have caused the explosion in the superhero genre this past decade, so for some audiences, it won't stand up as a good movie to modern scrutiny. As Sam Raimi was known for at the time, he heavily stylized the action scenes in this movie instead of trying to gain the level of realism seen in his Spider-Man movies, something that wasn't possible in 1990. Personally, I think Darkman was easily one of the best superhero movies available at the time, and it still stands out as a dramatic and intriguing work of cinema.