Underrated Films - Darkman

 

Darkman is a superhero movie, that was produced by Universal Pictures, Renaissance Pictures, and Darkman Productions and distributed by Universal Pictures. Darkman was written by Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi, Daniel Goldin, Joshua Goldin, and Chuck Pfarrer and directed by Sam Raimi.

The story is, because his attorney girlfriend ran into conflict with a corrupt developer scientist Peyton Westlake is brutally beaten and disfigured. Now after receiving superhuman abilities from an experimental treatment, Peyton is left unstable but seeks revenge on those who left him for dead.

Why It's Underrated

Simply put, it just doesn't get enough attention. Even when Sam Raimi was receiving praise during his Spider-Man trilogy years and so forth, the movie just can't get any sort of attention. It largely remains under many people's radar.

My Thoughts

Now I do want to bring two slight problems I have. One being Danny Elfman's score. Man, I just realized this is now the third time I've wrote about his music, but anyways, while he does have many great musical bits played throughout the movie, there were times when it just sounded a little too close to his score for the movie he worked on previously to Darkman, that being 1989's Batman.

Then we have the special effects. As for makeup and the rest of the practical effects, they're great. Raimi had a top notch team working with him and they haven't aged a day. But then there's the optical effects. These haven't aged well, they're very dusty.

Now for the positives, one of those being the villain named Robert G. Durant. He was awesome. He's a classic gangster character, but has this very calm and intense energy to him.

The other good aspect is Liam Neeson's (and yes am I referring to THAT Liam Neeson) performance. While we do have scenes with his regular face and he does a fantastic job at that, most of the film his face is covered with heavy makeup. So he mainly has to use his voice, but especially his eyes to convey what emotion his character is going through, and he was tremendous at that.

My last praise and it's truly the best thing about the entire movie is the story. While we get some of the usual superhero stuff, ultimately the story is a tragedy. We had a very good and noble man, who didn't deserve what happened to him. And whether he wins or not doesn't matter, he's not the same man as before. He wasn't just damaged physically, but he was also damaged mentally as well. So sadly Peyton Westlake truly did die and Darkman was born.

While not without flaws, Darkman is a really good movie. Whether you're into superheroes or not or just a fan of movies in general, I say give this one a watch.

My final rating is, Good.

Well I'm all done here. Come back on Thursday, Sept 12th, when I return to the Road to Superman (2025). What will I be reviewing? You'll just have to find out. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.