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Spawn - New Line Platinum Series

Spawn - New Line Platinum Series

List Price: $14.97
Your Price: $13.47
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Doesn't compare to the comic book.
Review: This film was well crafted from a collaboration of Todd McFarlane and director/visual effects wizard Mark Dippe. I'm not saying that this movie was exceptionally good nor all that bad, but it still could've used some work. Spawn(Comic book)is a very graphic and very detailed look at crime and mobsters, the movie however revolves around Jason Wynn(Martin Sheen)who has his mind set on world domination. The story was somewhat weak compared to the comic book considering that if the comic was put on screen, it would have an NC-17 rating slapped on it. The DVD however is a step up from the theatrical release because it is the director's cut. This has a very good amount of extras that I enjoyed watching as well. If you're a fan of visual effects you may want to take a look because this film is purely based upon effects rather than plot.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: VERY DISSAPOINTED!
Review: I have bin collecting spawn comix for 9 years and I really thought this movie was gonna rock when it came out in theaters. BOY WAS I WRONG. THE FILM IS HORRIBLE.
1 STAR FOR SPECIAL EFFECTS
2 STAR FOR THE CAST MEMBERS WHO COULD HAVE MADE THIS A BIG FILM.
WHY TODD WHY?!!! You should have directed this film and well, we sure as HELL would have expected a hard R but who the hell got this guy to direct it?
They could have made this movie big and they messed it up.
When I saw the R rated versian of the film I was like...WHAT THE HELL?...THERE WAS NOTHING R ABOUT THAT. YOU JUST SEE A FRIGGIN' HOLE IN A WOMANS HEAD....OH YEAH....AND INSTEAD OF THE LINE HE SAID IN ONE OF HIS BATTLES IT got changed to holy s**t...THAT WAS PRETTY MUCH IT! I thought the violator was gonna rip the homles kids dad apart. NOT SHAKE HIM AROUND AND SLAM HIM TO THE WALL! This is not how spawn is in the comics. The comic is very dark and mature. Same with the series on HBO.
The HBO series makes up for it so go watch that. I read that columbia or paramount is gonna produce spawnII and Todd Mcfarlane is gonna' direct it! YAAAAAAAAAAAA! Later....

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great!
Review: This is very nice movie... filled with great FX... BUT beware! it doesn't have any Spanish subtitles!!! as announced here at Amazon.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: C'mon, this movie isn't that bad!
Review: Although Spawn has recieved many bad reviews, it's probably one of the best comic-book movies I've ever seen.

The plot revolves around Al Simmons, (Michael Jai White) who works for a man named Jason Wynn. (Martin Sheen) Simmons is basically a hit-man, but he has much more depth. He isn't some hard-boiled killer; he's just a simple family man who needs money to support his family. Soon enough, Wynn turns his back on him and kills him, thus sending Simmons into hell. To get a chance to see his wife again, he makes a deal with the devil to lead Satan's army through the gates of heaven.

And then, the movie picks up. Although badly burned, he soon develops and takes advantage of his armor/weapons Satan has outfitted him with. He has a cape that lets him blend in with his surroundings, he can have spikes come out of his body, and he can summon chains out of his chest to do away with attackers. As an added twist, the devil has a deamon in the shape of a weird clown named the Violator watch Simmons and see that he is filling his end of the bargain. But all Simmons wants to do is kill Wynn and get his wife back. But that gets a little harder when a sensor is surgically implanted in Wynn's heart. If the heart stops beating, a deadly plague named HEAT-16 will be unhleashed, killing everything.

Some specatacular acion scenes follow, including a shootout in a huge ballroom, a motorcycle chase, a fight with the Violator, and more. The acting is good, especially by Martin Sheen and Michael Jai White. The only bad thing is this movie was the ending, which was plagued by bad special effects and just plain bad concepts. It [stinks] to see a movie be so great until the last 15 minutes. (Where it's supposed to shine even more than the eariler parts of the movie.)

That aside, Spawn will stun you with some pretty good acting, action, and special effects. A must buy if you like the cartoons.

1997; 94 minutes; Rated R for some scenes of strong violence, some obscneity, and toilet humor which includes sexual refrences.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Some of the best special f/x ever and a great movie in one
Review: I don't see why a lot of people don't like "Spawn." I thought it was a good movie and it has some of the best special effects I've ever seen. It's about Al Simmons (Michael Jai White), who is killed during an explosion after someone he knew turned his back on him. He comes back as a scarred man who agrees with the devil to lead an army of hell in order to seek revenge against Jason Wynn (Martin Sheen) and the others that did him justice, and to have a chance to get his life back with his wife and kids. Since he agreed with the devil about this new mission, he now has the ability to turn himself into Spawn. With this new suit of armor and the ability to do many things such as make spikes come out of him and to turn a motorcycle that he's riding into a huge Spawn head, he will try to seek revenge and possibly get his life and family back.

"Spawn" has an effective storyline and some jaw-dropping special effects. You'll see what I mean about the special effects just about all the way through the movie. All the people in the movie do a good job of acting, especially John Leguizamo as the goofy clown. "Spawn" has elements of a horror movie, an adventure movie, and even a drama movie all wrapped up into one great movie. I recommend anybody to at least watch "Spawn."

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: This movie was great, but it needed some time to be finished
Review: Spawn is a great, big and dark charecter, i still think they should've taken their time to finish this movie rather than casting quick and not polishing up the special effects. Other than that, a legendary comic charecter has been brought to life, so no more reading, watch the damn movie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Really Good
Review: This movie was good, Great special effects(probably the best special effects I have ever seen in a movie). Bad acting however,
and the clown is really annoying. It's cool when he turns into the violater. Don't ever see the PG-13 verion, that was bad. If you like the action figures and comics of Spawn, then you'll like this, its very good.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great for Spawn newbies, problematic for hard-core fans
Review: I came to this movie knowing basically nothing about the Spawn character, the comic strip, and the whole story behind Todd McFarlane's vaunted modern-day hero. I am familiar with McFarlane's work on Spiderman in the early nineties, but that's basically it. My reaction may thus be much different from devoted Spawn fans who had definite expectations from this film. Fans are apt to either love or hate the real-life movie dramatization of a favorite character, and this movie had definite limits that could easily rub fans the wrong way. I understand that there are some significant differences between the Spawn storyline we see here and that of the comic book series, that this is a much more linear retelling of the legend, one that could not afford to leave many unanswered questions at the end because the chances of making a sequel were unquantifiable at the time. The special effects are not bad at all, but the movie suffers from the overinflated billing of these special effects; if the studio hadn't overplayed their hand by naming this "the special-effects movie of the year" 1997, all of the computer animation would have been scrutinized less completely by moviegoers. The limitations imposed by the MPA ratings board in securing the film a PG-13 rating also basically ruined the film that was shown in theatres; this "director's cut" of the film is a complete and much, much better version than fans originally paid to see.

Spawn, for those who don't know, is not your typical superhero. Trained to be an elite assassin for the CIA, he ultimately decides to get out after a mission that kills a lot of civilians who, he was promised, would not be in the area of operations. His boss, played quite wickedly by Martin Sheen, basically sets him up and has him killed. Al Simmons, our hero's real name, goes from being burned alive to the always-flaming pits of hell, where he agrees to lead the devil's army in return for getting his wife back. While no time has passed for him personally, five whole years have come and gone back on earth, his wife is married to his best friend, he's horribly burned and disfigured, a rude and crude Clown keeps pestering him, and some old guy in a long coat keeps giving him the business about taking the wrong path. John Leguizamo is brilliant as Clown, the devil's representative on earth who has a hilarious yet nasty nature to match his dramatically strange appearance. It is his job to make sure Simmons, now being reborn as Spawn, acts according to plan and starts Armageddon as scheduled. Spawn isn't happy at all, despite the painfully new amazing armor his body begins to grow, and he lashes out in anger at the man he blames for his death. There is still a lot of Al Simmons underneath the scars and living armor, however, and the ultimate test will find him choosing whether to accede to the devil's plans or betray his evil covenant and become a dark angel for good in the world.

There are a lot, and I do mean a lot of CGI effects in this movie. Most of them are quite good, but as a whole the effects do not live up to their over hyped billing. The scenes taking place in the pits of hell, in a sense thrown in during the final stages of production, do not look very real at all; in truth, they look like the kind of animated sequence you might find in the computers games Doom or Diablo. Spawn's living armor is capable of extraordinary things, as is his vintage red cape, but some of the effects are a tad rough around the edges and all of them look and feel cinematic rather than truly realistic. As explained in the film's commentary, time and budgetary constraints explain the limits seen in this regard. Don't expect to see the world's greatest CGI here, and you stand less chance of being disappointed. The human side of this story is a compelling one, even though the film does not allow for the type of exposition found in the comic book series, I am sure. Spawn truly is a new kind of hero, a hero created from the pits of hell itself. For my money, though, the antics and unforgettable performance of John Leguizamo as Clown steal the show.

There are oodles of special features included on the DVD. I made a point of listening to the commentary because I wanted to know more about Spawn's story, and it made for fascinating listening. Featuring all of the men who basically created the movie, the most remarkable thing about the commentary is the list of all the cuts that had to be made in order to get a PG-13 rating for the film. Many of these cuts are frankly ridiculous and show just how out of touch with reality the censors have become these days. This theme is further expounded upon by Spawn creator Todd McFarlane in a series of fascinating interviews; you have to love the guy because he is anti-corporate to the core, fearlessly pointing out many of the problems with moviemaking today. The making of featurette is good, the music videos are must-see (especially Marilyn Manson's), and there are loads of original sketches and illustrations that will be of interest to hard-core Spawn fans.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Hmm
Review: It's a good film but not as good as the comics or animated series. Nothing too spectacular. Possibly a renter. Slightly recommended.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Get the anime version... Though this is good too...
Review: It's OK i guess... everyone says it sucks. But i mean its action stuff is sick. The clown's pretty good though. I've always liked the special effects. Why is it rated R? It's fine exept for if you get it on DVD w/ the Marilyn Manson video which is horrible and gross. Yet again, get the anime version.


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