Regardless of what you think about “Spawn,” or the real-life cartoon genre with which it is identified, it is absolutely impossible to deny the fact that John Leguziamo’s clown is one of the most entertaining characters in film history. Period.
Personally, I didn’t notice much of the plot, or many of the other characters, because the clown was so amazingly compelling. Sure, he was Satan personified (literally), and constantly made fart jokes at the intellectual level of “Beavis and Butthead,” but he was hilarious.
Leguziamo instantly grasped the concept of the film: he never denies the fact that it’s a cartoon. The best of the other performances stemmed from that realization, as well. Martin Sheen, as human-bad guy Jason Wynn, is just as nasty, just as unrealistic, and just as entertaining.
Michael Jai White, though, missed the point. This is unfortunate, since he plays the lead. As both Al Simmons, his angst-ridden CIA operative, and Spawn, the angst-ridden hero, he tries a little too hard to be multi-dimensional, while Leguziamo and Sheen are playing their chosen dimension to the hilt.
The plot is a little confusing and a mite outrageous, but suits the movie well. The Clown, acting for Satan, sets up an intricate plan where first, Simmons is murdered, so he can lead Hell’s army. Next, he takes advantage of Wynn’s exotic weapons technology which can kill everyone, except for the lucky ones that possess Wynn’s protective medicine.
Then, the clown talks Wynn into attaching a device to his heart so that if he is killed, the device will explode, destroying the earth. Not informing Simmons (now Spawn) of this, he sends Spawn out to kill Wynn in a vengeful rage. Then, Spawn and Wynn will be in place to lead Hell’s army to the gates of heaven.
That’s just the simple version. There are several more important characters than are typically present in an action film like this one, and even the one-dimensional characters prove to be two-faced now and then.
I was quite impressed by the special effects. Many cartoon adaptations tend to take them for granted, forgoing perfection for production speed, but “Spawn” visibly doesn’t. Spawn’s suit and shields are tremendously lifelike for something so unrealistic, and the dragon that the clown turns into is, at the very least, exceptionally creative.
Luckily, the angst-ridden Michael Jai White doesn’t bring the film down too much. Sheen and Leguziamo are always there to return us to the genre, and make the obligatory fart-joke.
Grade: B