Darkman (1990)

Darkman is supposedly the film which landed writer/director Sam Raimi in the director's seat for Spider-man. If this is true, it's no surprise the Spider-man series has dissolved into such a campy mess, but at least we all can be happy it has never gotten as bad as this.

Darkman is Raimi's answer to 1989 smash comic book film Batman. Attempting to build on its success is Raimi's own abnormal creation, played by Liam Neeson. Neeson is a scientist named Peyton Westlake who’s attempting to master the creation of a synthetic skin which would revolutionize skin grafting, unfortunately his creation is only able to hold its form for 99 minutes before it completely dissolves. Westlake finally realizes light is the reason the skin is not holding its form, and that it does stay stabilized in the darkness. Before he's able to record these findings he's interrupted by a group of thugs who have come to reclaim an incriminating memo Westlake's girlfriend, an attorney, had discovered on their boss. Westlake insists he knows nothing of the memo, and the thugs’ burn down his apartment and leave him to die. Miraculously Westlake makes it out alive, but is severely burned over his entire body and a complicated medical operation has to be performed. Nerves that regulate pain in his body must be remove, otherwise the extreme pain from his injuries would kill him. Now completely unrecognizable, he must attempt to re-create his synthetic skin formula from memory so that he can disguise himself and seek revenge on those that did this to him.

With Darkman I don't know what's worse, the unbelievably bad story or the over-the-top melodramatic acting. This film is really all around bad, and so much so I found myself laughing hysterically when Liam Neeson starts screaming "they took my hands!" Nothing in this movie is even close to believable, from the fact that Westlake survives the explosion that completely disfigures him to his laboratory equipment still being operational after it was all blown up! This film is strictly for fans of some of Raimi's more offbeat low budget cornball fests, but as for me I'd rather sit through Batman & Robin than this again, at least that film is consistently funny because it's so awful, Darkman is only consistently awful.

4/10