Liam Neeson plays Peyton Westlake--a scientist who has found a way to produce synthetic skin in this ultra-realistic fashion, which may very well make a huge splash in the surgery wards at every hospital from Los Angeles to Timbuktu. However, the skin dissolves after exactly 100 minutes.
This acclaim is short-lived, however, when gangsters bust into his laboratory and decide to kill him using these chemicals, blowing up his whole lab in the process. They do this to teach his girlfriend, Julie (Frances McDormand), a lesson (as she's investigating these guys).
Julie thinks Peyton to be dead, Peyton wishes he was--burns cover his whole body, and he's been listed as a John Doe in a local hospital. After breaking out he sets up a plan to somehow reinvent his synthetic skin so that it might last longer when exposed to sunlight for more than a 100 minutes and get together with his girlfriend again.
He'll dish out a swift (and proper) justice to the criminals who attacked him by mimicking certain people and forcing them to kill each other from within. He makes for an unorthodox superhero, if you will, and one who has a wee bit of a mental problem. The movie takes itself seriously for the most part...but that doesn't mean some comedic elements aren't there. YouTube "Darkman Pink Elephants" for my favorite part of the film.
Darkman has this really cool The Crow meets The Phantom of the Opera vibe that makes it work so well. The music is outrageous and very similar to Batman (due to Danny Elfman's involvement), the camera work by Raimi is very zany and wild like he's known for, and the acting is very early-nineties ridiculous at times...which I really dig.
What surprised me the most was how well this flick holds up over twenty years after it was released. I enjoyed it when I was a kid and it's still a fun movie with an impeccable pace (for an hour and a half film) and a story that's very classic with all of the major archetypical characters available. The story may not be the most original of all time, but it's done with a certain cinematic flair that makes it so interesting and enjoyable.
Coupled with the awesome special effects at certain freak-outs Darkman has as well as the finale fought on top of the city, you have a tremendous movie on your hands fit for a Friday night. Also: keep your eyes out for the awesome Bruce Campbell cameo and don't waste your time on the sequels.
5 out of 5 stars
© Jason Haskins, 2011
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