Clayfaceis the latest entry in the current the DCU and follows the rise and fall of up-and-coming actor Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries). When the film starts, he is on top of the world: he is planning to propose, has been nominated for a major Academy Award, is adored by fans, and is the the talk of the town. This quickly flips on its axis when, while out in the club, despite the warnings from his best friend Cory (Joshua James) Matt hooks up with the wrong girl— mob boss girlfriend Mia Torrez(Joana Ribiero). Matt wakes up in bed with Mia to find her boyfriend Mario’s Szabo (David Dencik) and his goons already aware of the situation and ready to exact revenge. Szabo orders them to mutilate Matt’s face and make sure “he ain’t pretty no more.” Down, but not out, Matt files a lawsuit against Szabo and begins undergoing numerous surgeries to restore his face. The surgeries offer little success, his agents who tricked him into handing off Power of Attorney ends up stealing his fortune, and he loses the case. The public quickly turns on him, believing Mia’s lies when she testifies that he came onto her. At rock bottom, he goes to Dr. Caitlyn Corr (or is it Bates, they don’t make it very clear, played by Naomi Ackle) who is a bit of a kindred spirit who was cut off by her business partners who used some of her research to start a beauty company. She has been working with a cellular regenerative substance, initially testing on her on skin. With nothing to lose, Matt offered himself up for research. At first, she appears hesitant but something about Matt reminds her of her late brother who inspired her research in the first place and eh ultimately decides to work with Matt. I realize I am starting to run a bit long on intro, let me just say, stuff happens, Matt overdoes it with the regenerative substance, and becomes a little bit unstable and begins going after those that have done him wrong, thanks in large part to the side effects that the substance has had on him.
I have seen some people online compare this to the movie 1990 film Darkman. It’s thirty-six years since I saw the movie so my memory is the clearest about it, but I can definitely see the similarities. The protagonist is wronged, disfigured, and uses his new found status to exact revenge. This one has the advantage of (slightly) better special effects (some of it STILL looked little cheap) and more stories like this sense to tell the story a little bit better. There is little that is all that original here, but there are some nice touches from the past 36 years here that enrich an otherwise basic revenge plot. And although the effects fall slightly short here and there, a lot of it does work. Some of the ways he takes out his revenge are pretty creative and definitely gory. If I recall correctly, Darkman was more a blank slate and had to rely on a lot more to manipulate his appearance. Here, he is basically another Mystique which leads to a lot of creativity and in some cases, humor which keep the movie fun instead of overly dark which it easily could have been.
At the beginning of the movie, a lot is made of Matt’s “kind eyes.” Unfortunately, that doesn’t come up much going forward and was a lot opportunity. Tom Rhys Harries DOES have a warmth and kindness about him. It comes through a lot and you do feel sorry for the guy. He can also go sinister at the drop of the hat which adds a lot to the performance. His primary costar, Naomi Ackle is really good too. It was nice to see and African-American woman play and intelligent, compassionate, not sexualized, and gets to drive a good deal of the story. The chemistry between the two is there and really needed for this story.
This one got an R-rating and it is well-earned. The body horror elements are intense. It’s Nip/Tuck on steroids. There is a scene of Matt’s first surgery where they really go in and show everything very causally and manner-of-factedly (did I just make up a word? If feels like I just made up a word.) He just gets worse as the film progresses. There is one scene that takes place in an airplane lavatory that cringe. There I looked over at the guy sitting a few seats over from me and he had his hands covering his eyes, peaking but on the ready to cover them if need be. I am usually not for that type of thing just being thrown in arbitrarily but it really works with this character so it never feels gratuitous.
Clayface is a character that I didn’t know a ton about before singing this. I think Batman:The Animated Series is responsible for about 95% of what I knew about him coming in, and the Arkham games making up the rest. It was basically a clean slate which allowed me to just go in with no expectations and see what developed. Gotta say, I was entertained. The pacing was nice. A lot of times with a comic book movie, they want to throw you right into the superheroics and fantastical stuff. Clayface took its time to flesh out the characters and give a sense of who they are at the core without going right there. We don’t even there the full on monstrosity we know from the comics and the cartoon until the very end of the movie. Sure, this could have been more for budget that anything, but I’d like to to think that knowing the budgetary constraints they’d be under allowed for better storytelling.
Oh, and I also dug the weird, ambiguous ending…
Definitely liked this one. My score: 8.5.
What say you? Mold your thoughts and leave ‘em in the comments. And until next time…
