Spawn (1997)

If it had Will Smith or Christian Bale at the protagonist role and some top rated people on directorship, it would have earned above 7 rating on IMDb.

It's an irony but true, most people do not appreciate the story line, neither the acting. We only worship the actors and the level of publicity before the release.

A military assassin called Al Simmons was betrayed by the head of a covert government agency. The head of the govt assigned Simmons a mission to take out a Bio-Chem plant in North Korea while ordering his top assassin, Jessica Priest to assassinate Simmons. Very cruel political picture. After Simmons dies from a gas fire, he arrives in the Hell where The Devil offers him a Faustian deal. If Simmons becomes his eternal servant and leader of his army in Armageddon, he will be able to return to Earth to see his beloved people. Simmons accepted the offer.

That's the beginning of the story. Rest of the plot is very perfectly made that can hold your attention for the whole time. I liked this film.

Fmovies: Everyone seems to agree that the original Spawn comic is excellent material for a pointless, violent, stupid and thoroughly amusing movie. This movie, however....It isn't all that violent (if you compare it to the comic book), but it is stupid and utterly pointless. Amusing? It could have been if they had inserted a prolonged torture scene of John Leguizamos Clown character: one of the most un-funny, irritating and tacky "comic relief" characters ever to have (dis)graced the screen. Move over Chris Tucker and Pauly Shore - we have a new candidate for overrated quasi-comedian of the decade. The special effects were kind of confusing - half of them were excellent and half of them looked like beautified Sesame Street animations (the demon "thing" of hell, for example, which had me crying with laughter). Let's hope for the next Spawn movie they take a few chances and make a grittier downbeat tale with more in common with the original comic and not like the muppet show from hell.

This is just really cool, plus I saw it first at a rather young age. The effects really are sometimes terrible and other times good or even very good for it's time, still features many cool action scenes and set pieces, a memorable anti-hero and the unforgettable character of the "Clown".

Spawn fmovies. I remember seeing this film as a kid, and i remember it being pretty bad-ass. Joining IMDb, and seeing it at a 4.9, I was astonished. But having been over twelve years, I decided to go out and buy the Director's cut. Just to be blunt, it's nowhere near worthy of the rating it's at. But, there is quite a bit of wasted potentiality. I'll start off with the good, which really there is a lot of if you think about it. First off, if you're really into action, look no further because this film sports a nice amount of it. And the basic premise is pretty interesting, but even the director's cut clocks in at under an hour and forty minutes , so it fails to dive any deeper than it certainly could've. The cinematography is by Guillermo Navarro, who many of you probably know from his work with director Guillermo del Toro ( "Blade 2", the "Hellboy" series, "Pan's Labyrinth", etc.), and he does a bang up job. With the right direction this could have been a masterpiece by all means. Mark A.Z. Dippé knew and carried out the bare minimum of film making, and if you look into it is busy now-a-days with animated Garfield productions. What a down grade, huh? About 90% of the visuals are pretty damn good actually, and the acting as it is is all right. For these things alone, I enjoyed this movie, where as I despised "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" for its predictable generic storyline and overly done flashy effects. Michael Jai White was far from terrible and John Leguizamo was pretty terrific if not a bit cartoony at times.

The bad points really hit this film hard. The pacing, attuned to its short run time, zooms by way too quickly with annoying video game like transitions and a score that didn't fit the film too well. Every time I was expecting more to be developed, I was let down. "Oh, this is a cool plot line-wait, what, we're moving on already? oh..okay..". And lastly, amongst 90% of the great CGI and make-up, the battle in hell is painstakingly terrible. They should've gone with an elaborate set and CGI here and there, but it becomes hopeless so you have to sit threw what you would call a lackluster climax.

But for what it is, I highly recommended this movie for its dark humor and awesome action.

The first time I saw this...well, I wanted to like it. I had rented it probably as soon as it came out on VHS. I hadn't read a Spawn comic but knew one thing, he was a badass and a lot of people liked the comics. I had high hopes. Boy, was I disappointed. Now as the time has passed and I've gotten older, I've tried to like it for different reasons. For the campy aspect of it, for Leguizamo's part, for anything...I still don't.

The effects are what they are, and you can't do much with a budget too low for your aspirations when it comes to a work like this. As it is, the suit and cape look pretty good, but it seems like those are the only things that any money were spent on. However, that is the least of my concerns for Spawn.

The acting is...in a word...atrocious. No one other than Leguizamo has any fun in this thing. He's like the guy at a crappy party that says, "Hey, screw it. I'm gonna have a good time whether the rest of you guys are or not!" Did I like his performance? Not really, but you have to give him credit for trying. That's more than I can say for the rest of the cast, crew, pretty much anyone else associated with this. Jai White is awful. The script doesn't help him at all but he was just the wrong choice. That said, there probably weren't too many African-Americans at the time that folks thought could pull it off, so he was chosen. Wrong choice, but I guess you do what you have to. Sheen was so bad I had to watch Apocalypse Now again just to get the vision of Spawn out of my head. Sweeney and Randle....who? They were in this thing? See what I mean?

The movie should NOT have been PG-13 either. We know well enough these days that even when a movie is put out in a director's cut on DVD with an R rating that it doesn't help much. Spawn should have been a "hard R" all the way from the get-go. It also could have helped itself being a bit longer, say 2 hrs total. But maybe it's the best thing that Spawn only tortured us for 90 mins. Any more of Spawn the way it is and you wind up thinking too much about Death's sweet release.

Like I said, I really wanted to like it. I watch it when it comes on FX or whatever other TV channel just to see if I can find a reason to like it, so maybe I won't feel the disappointment I felt the first time. It never works...and it never will.

Personal Note: I don't know how many time I have watched this movie and each time i see it i love it more and more.The movie might be old but it's still really well made I think it's even better then some of the recent movies that came out.Spawn is my favorite super hero of all time full action packed plus it has a love touch in it well the movie is basically based on a romance.A man, Practically selling is soul to the devil Malbolgia. Michael Jai White Does a good performance in this.

Well down to business great:A killer named Al Simmons " Michael Jai White"Want's to retire is job but is boss Jason win"Martin Sheen"send's him one last job as a set up and kill's him by burning him in a facility.He goes to hell and The devil Malbolgia tell's if he lead's his army of hell spawn's he'll let him see His wife Wanda "Theresa Randle" and the story goes on.