With the ubiquitous superhero movies that we get nowadays, many of them are visually indistinguishable from each other. The only one that crossed the line into something far more unique and distinct in terms of style and humor was "Deadpool," which was a sly wink at the genre. Back in 1990, we did not have a proliferation of comic-book films. Only Tim Burton's huge box-office bonanza "Batman" was lurking on VHS and that summer we had theatrical comic-book movies like the primary-colored adventures of "Dick Tracy." "Darkman was released in August and I found it to be a subterranean, visually kinetic feast of a movie, far surpassing Burton's "Batman" with an avenger who grows to be quite insane.
Liam Neeson is Peyton Westlake, the doctor who is trying to invent liquid skin that lasts in any source of light longer than 99 minutes. Due to the fact that the synthetic skin is photosensitive, it disintegrates as it hits that 99 minute mark. While Peyton tries to solve this problem, he is in a loving relationship with an attorney, Julie (Frances McDormand), who is not ready to marry. Trouble spews when Julie mistakenly leaves a memo at Peyton's home that incriminates her billionaire boss, Louis Strack Jr. (Colin Friels, deliciously evil as a greedy corporatist) . An explosion at Peyton's house kills his assistant and leaves Peyton permanently acid-scarred and left for dead. He wanders the streets after escaping from a hospital and finally settles in to a condemned building with his leftover computer monitors and memory and begins work on that synthetic skin. The spacious warehouse rooms reminds one of the dank, half-destroyed laboratories of Dr. Frankenstein in those early Universal Horror flicks.
The other main gonzo villain is Robert G. Durant (a priceless Larry Drake), a merciless mob boss who collects severed fingers that he chops off with his cigar cutter. Durant is played with such restrained devilish charm and the kick is that he gets off on it - this Durant will off his own henchmen without the slightest remorse (one guy is thrown out of a tall building with Durant remarking, after discovering two airline tickets, "Have a nice flight").
The real kick in the cojones is Liam Neeson who gives a multi-faceted performance as Peyton, painting him as a tragic figure who no longer feels pain as Darkman yet does bear emotional pain over losing his girlfriend. Once he can perfect the synthetic skin beyond the 99 minute mark, he thinks he can live a life and marry Julie. Of course we are aware that this can't happen and Neeson shows that dubious side as well. If it had not been for this subplot involving Julie, we might not have cared much for Darkman and yet Neeson allows us to sympathize with him, even when scaring a cat while doing a funny court jester dance. We see the humanity, the loss of self, and of becoming almost as dangerous as the men he seeks vengeance against.
"Darkman" utilizes and cleverly exploits the Darkman's attempts to fool Durant and his crew by using synthetic duplicate masks of their faces as disguises and recreating their voices. This leads to one laceratingly funny moment where Durant meets his clone ("So, whose little boy are you?") as they keep shouting through a revolving door, "Shoot him!" There's also a fairly nightmarish moment where that henchman thrown out the window by Durant crash lands on a car. A pedestrian screams and then sees that same guy sitting on a bench! Of course, it is Darkman in disguise but the wicked smile says everything. "Darkman" has moments of fever dream-like fervor - it is unshakable and something the direct-to-video sequels were sorely lacking. And the coup de resistance - easily the funniest and most inventive scene - is when Darkman clones himself as Durant and robs a convenience store while the security camera picks up the footage! It must be seen to be appreciated.
From the hypnotic imagery of Darkman's consciousness that includes fire, animated DNA strands and brain waves in micro-second cuts, to the peculiar and highly memorable transitions (Julie staring at the fiery explosions segueing to her at a funeral), to some inventive deaths of Durant's crew members (hang on for dear life when you see one of them being forced to poke their head out of a manhole while traffic flies by), to a truly explosive (in every sense of the word) helicopter ride where Darkman is left dangling with a suspended cable, "Darkman" is almost pure comic-book pop but it's got Liam Neeson's gravitas and Sam Raimi's roller-coaster mentality meshing almost evenly. When Peyton is off and about on the streets alone, we wish he could reunite with Julie and start anew and maybe figure out the secret to that synthetic skin. That he doesn't and can't proves there was something more sanguine at stake here than the average comic-book movie. That's Darkman.
