Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Absolutely Fantastic

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Raimi had wanted for years to adapt and make a film version of The Shadow. However, the studios he shopped the project around to balked at the idea: He was still somewhat unknown at the time, and there wasn't much confidence behind the comic strip's popularity.Raimi, in response, chose the next best thing--he created his own version, blending elements of the original comic book hero, Phantom of the Opera, and even a little of The Elephant Man for pathos. What came about from it--spawning two very bad sequels in the process--was a film demonstrating a filmmaker's inspiration, but one pumped through his own vivid, wild imagination; and it makes for one of the most original entries into the comic-book movie canon in the last 25 years.Still the studios had no love for this film in its finished form. They slated it for release in August 1990 at the end of the summer release cycle. You know, the same month of the year they released "Coyote Ugly"? But the film was a success garnering almost 50 million on a 16 million dollar budget.Liam Neeson plays Peyton Westlake, a scientist on the verge of inventing synthetic skin from a series of photographs of the subject. Thus disfigured people could wear his synthetic mask and be moved toward a more normal life. Peyton's girlfriend, Julie, a journalist, has found a memorandum indicating a developer she knows made a Mafia payout in connection with a development he is building. She makes the mistake of telling said developer that she has this proof of his crime, but that she doesn't have it on her. So evil developer has his psychopathic buddies go to Peyton's loft/lab, blow up the place while taking the memorandum, and in the process Peyton's assistant is blown to bits. Peyton is burned beyond recognition but lands in the nearby bay.With no ID, as a John Doe, Peyton is given really good treatment by the hospital which takes the drastic step of severing nerves that allow him to feel pain, else he would spend all of his time screaming in pain from the burns. He escapes from the hospital, and meanwhile his assistant is buried as Peyton. You'd think family or friends would come looking for the assistant, but I guess that's another film.So Peyton continues his work on skin regeneration, with his lab now acting as a kind of batcave, and things are urgent because Peyton needs this cure for himself as his face and hands are horribly disfigured. As things are he has only 99 minutes before the artificial skin decomposes. And this works for some good fun for the next part of the film, because Peyton wants revenge on top of a cure. Plus he needs money. He finds a chance for revenge and money by posing as the different people who "killed him" and then just counting on the worst instincts of these thugs - and they have plenty of them - to turn on each other.But then a mistake - Peyton lets Julie know he's alive -wearing artificial skin of course - and that memorandum that was the whole point of ruining Peyton's life? It turns up on a desk, with the coffee stain Julie put there herself at Peyton's loft, right before he died. And now Julie knows Peyton's "death" was no accident. I'll let you see how things work out from here.The real revelation here was Larry Drake as evil Robert Durant. He strokes a small furry pet wearing gloves and an apron that says "Kiss the Cook" while maintaining his collection of human fingers he has taken from people who do not pay their debts to him. The reason he was a revelation? For years before this he had played a mentally handicapped man who has been working at the law firm showcased by "LA Law". It was a kind of last request from his dying mother to the firm so her son would have a purpose in life. To go from that gentle persona to a heartless monster shows Drake had range most people did not think he had.Give it a try. The special effects have aged a bit, but the human factors make it still relevant.

For me, Raimi is an underrated creator : he has a bit the same talent as Spielberg (writing, casting, directing, producing) but without his recognition and money. Sure Raimi wants to have fun while liking dark and horror so he alienates a part of his audience but he is full of original ideas: Here, he shows that he can do a real super-hero movie well before CGI effects and without a big budget. And what's amazing it's that is even better than the real thing : for one time, the origin story is interesting, the power is original and the LA setting is a change from the old metropolis. Raimi never misses the opportunity to a stunning and horrific frame or angle, his camera is like alive by itself and he stages great action sequence ! Ice on the cake : he has a wonderful cast to play with a Liam bringing all his massive drama and Frances rather convincing as the crying girlfriend ! Anf for sure, you will find all his usual cameos : Bruce Campbell, his brother and himself ! So it's a dream to watch the works of that guy such passionate in movies !

Darkman is not your typical superhero movie. It is about a scientist, Peyton Westlake, and an unfortunate accident that nearly takes his life. This accident is brought about with the help of some local mob thugs who are after his wife, a lawyer. Darkman is a movie focused on revenge but shows that there are some definitive grey areas in society. When people become corrupt who do you depend on? Who is going to return things back to normal? You are. Simply enough you are the only person you can truly trust. Darkman keeps you entertained with Gore and Action, but if you focus on the story, you start to feel sympathetic for Westlake. You start to want him to finish this nightmare. You become focused on him and his struggles. Darkman is a superhero movie but he's only got 99 minutes per mask to accomplish his goals. Will he be able to protect his loved one from the shadows? Or will he be driven insane? Only time will tell.

I seriously wonder if I was watching the same film as some of the reviews here. The acting was atrocious, especially from an actor such as Liam Neeson who I normally think of as good. The special effects were cheap and badly produced. I know it was a comic book story line, but surely the script could have been upgraded from the comic book style. I struggle to find anything good to say about this film. I think the best that I can say is that it was relatively short and I did manage to stay with it to the (fairly predictable) end. I see from reviews that Darkman II exists. I won't be watching it. Even the made for TV films on the SyFy channel were better than this, at least they are intentionally cheesy