Man-Thing

Title: Man-Thing
Director: Brett Leonard
Cast: Matthew Le Nevez, Rachel Taylor, Jack Thompson
Year: 2005
MPAA: Rated R for violence, grisly images, language and some sexuality
Date of Review: October 27, 2005

You don't have to be in the proverbial "loop" to know that the past few years have given us a plethora of comic book films. Marvel has had a monopoly on this recent trend, pumping out film after film of varying degrees of quality. It wasn't until this year's "Batman Begins" that DC entered the mix, and they did so with a huge wallop. However, many avid comic book readers have become a bit annoyed with Marvel, DC and the film companies, as they have only been focusing their efforts on the popular, commercially sellable super hero stories, when there are tons of comic books out there that are intelligent, witty, entertaining and generally fantastic without one cape or cowl. When Marvel revealed in 2004 that they would be giving cinematic life to their underground hit title "Man-Thing", fans rejoiced. But that happiness was quickly shattered when Lions Gate Films - the studio producing the movie - announced that the finished product was so mind-bendingly bad that they wouldn't be releasing it to theatres OR straight to video. Fans cried out, stating that they didn't care and they just wanted to see the movie. So finally, this past summer, Lions Gate Films released "Man-Thing" to DVD. Was it as bad as they said? Definitely not. But that's not saying it's anything particularly good, either.

The film is loosely based on a comic book series of the same name, which takes place in the swamp lands of the deep south, where a monster exists with the sole purpose of protecting "The Nexus" - a mystical realm of spirits and magic. The Man-Thing has control over the swamplands, and also possesses a power in which it literally feeds off the fear of living beings just by touching them, which leaves large burns all over their body. While the comic book series never really took off at a commercial level, it has a loyal fanbase and has had some fantastic writers over the years.

One place where the movie went wrong was in the transfer of the story from page to screen. While the film tries to retain some of the mysticism of the books by including a subplot about the Man-Thing being an old Native American legend, it is really nothing more than a stylized slasher horror film just like any other run-of-the-mill teen horror flick. But even this could be fixed with some fine tweaking. However, where this one sets itself apart is that the script is actually quite good (at least it is something that could be worked with), and the Man-Thing itself is impressive given the incredibly low budget of the film. It is, quite simply, the actors that ruin the entire movie.

Directed by Brett Leonard (mistake numero uno) of "The Lawnmower Man" fame, "Man-Thing" stars a cast of Australian actors playing characters from the Southern United States. This was done due to budget constraints, that forced the film to relocate from New Orleans to Australia. None of the actors are able to pull off the accent, but they all try to, and manage to butcher most of the script with their terrible voice-work.

Matthew Le Nevez plays Kyle Williams, the new sheriff in Bywater, a town which rests on the edge of a mysterious swamp where several people have gone missing or been found dead. The bodies that are found have been severely decomposed and are filled with moss, branches and other gross swampy stuff, even though they have only been dead for a few hours. The investigations point towards an elusive man named Laroque, who is known as a trouble maker in town, especially after a greedy oil tycoon comes and begins building rigs throughout the swamp. This awakens the Man-Thing, which begins killing anyone and everyone that enters the swamp, in an effort to avenge the damage that has been done to the land.

The film is quite obviously Brett Leonard's as he is still employing the same Tron-like effects that he has been using since "The Lawnmower Man" in the early 1990s. Luckily, these terrible effects are kept to a minimum, and the bulk of the Man-Thing itself is done with costume, makeup and animatronic effects. The monster is actually very impressive, and the effect of it literally being camouflaged in the forest, then suddenly moving is reminiscent of Ridley Scott's "Alien", in which the same effect is used for the alien monster to blend in with the cold, dark steel of the spaceship.

Again, the script is hardly the problem with this low-budget comic book film. It's the execution - mostly on the part of the actors - that drags it way down. The film has a distinct visual style, especially in the swamp scenes, which gives it a very eerie feel. The swamp is constantly lit with various shades of green, and there is almost always a thick layer of fog in which this light is given room to bounce and reflect, enhancing the mood of the scenes. But the occasionally impressive visuals just aren't enough to save the film from complete mediocrity.

While "Man-Thing" is not nearly the atrocity that Lions Gate made it out to be before it was released, it's understandable that the film only got a straight to video release. The movie's handful of redeeming features are not enough to overshadow the horrendous acting and amateur directing. But for fans of the series or fans of monster movies, it may be worthwhile to give it a rental.

5/10

Doom

Title: Doom
Director: Andrzej Bartkowiak
Cast: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Karl Urban, Rosamund Pike
Year: 2005
MPAA: Rated R for strong graphic violence/gore and language
Date of Review: October 25, 2005

Lately, Hollywood seems to have the strange notion that if you have a good idea, completely changing it would make a great movie. They also seem to think it's a smart idea to give original material with a huge, loyal fanbase to anyone who shows the tiniest amount of interest in doing the project. And with the recent comic book movie craze, the focus is beginning to encompass video games. First we had "Resident Evil", an incredibly popular and groundbreaking horror video game in which an elite team of government officers are sent to a remote mansion to investigate an epidemic. When they arrive, the "epidemic" is actually a horrific zombie attack, resulting in a slow-paced, nerve-racking gaming experience. So, of course, when it came time to make the movie, they made a fast-paced action flick with no scares, but rather lots of gore and big guns. Now, with "Doom", an even more popular video game, they have taken what was an original and frightening idea, and changed it around completely to make something bordering on completely incoherent.

The game "Doom" came about in the early 1990s, and ushered in an entirely new era and genre of games: the first person shooter. You play as a nameless soldier sent to Mars to fight off dozens, sometimes hundreds of monsters that have literally come from Hell. Sounds like a pretty interesting (if not simply fun) idea, right? Well, the movie changes all of the basic story elements to create something of a mess of genres, trying to be more than just a dumb action movie, when that's all people really want from something like "Doom".

"Doom" stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Sarge, the leader of an elite team of soldiers that are sent to Mars to investigate some strange, violent occurrences. So far so good. When they get there, they find that the good people of Union Aerospace Corporation (gamers will recognize this from the game) has been experimenting with human DNA, and have found the final pair of chromosomes, which somehow unleashes the violence inside people to create monsters. However, unlike the series of games which feature hundreds of different kinds of monsters, the movie features 2...huge, hulking wet things, and one instance of an ugly cross between a bulldog and a slug. Oh, and you also see the occasional zombie, but half the time the camera is moving so fast, they just look like people.

With a running time of nearly 2 hours, surprisingly little happens, especially considering the action-packed source material. A good 3/4 of the movie takes place in dark corridors and sewers, with the soldiers looking around corners and barking orders at each other. All this time, we get cheap, fake scares every 5 minutes, to the point where, when the real monsters actually show up, we really don't care.

The Rock steals the show as always, playing an admirable team leader who slowly goes completely insane, obsessed with carrying out his orders to the T. The supporting cast is a mixed bag, and for every entertaining or remotely interesting character we get, there's another who annoys to no end. Richard Brake (who most recently appeared in "Batman Begins" as Joe Chill, the petty criminal who killed Bruce Wayne's parents) plays a soldier named Portman, whose perverted comic relief is strangely reminiscent of the equally perverted Quagmire from TV's "Family Guy". Also occupying the screen is Karl Urban of "Lord of the Rings" fame, who plays another soldier named Grimm, who encounters his estranged sister on Mars and reunites with her for the first time since their parents' death. But the movie loses its focus so often that we are left wondering just who the main character is; is the movie about The Rock, or is it about Karl Urban?

The number one mistake this movie made was trying to have a story and background information on the characters. To be entirely honest, people going to see this movie really don't care. They want a quick fix of big monsters, loud guns, and lots of ridiculously graphic gore. Unfortunately, the monsters aren't very big (well, all 3 of them), the guns aren't loud, the gore is too sparse, and the movie takes way too long to get to any of it.

"Doom" also features about 5 minutes of action done in the first-person perspective, which is interesting in concept, but barely passable in its execution. There are some very interesting shots in the montage of first-person action (such as a a quick cut to a zombie holding an axe, which is shot out of his hand and lands square in his forehead), but the sets, characters and guns were all composed on different layers, and it shows. Nothing seems to fit together properly, and the result is very much like one of those bad video games where they use real actors on fake backdrops to try and achieve a "photo realistic" effect.

While the movie is by no means great, or even good, it is not the colossal failure that many anticipated. The Rock holds his own, and does a fantastic job playing Sarge as he slowly loses his mind. But the movie just doesn't have its heart where it counts, and it made all the wrong choices in its changes to the source material. For a movie based on a lightning fast game with hoards of Hell-sent enemies, it contains little-to-none of any of the elements that made the game so great.

Then again, by now viewers should be smart enough to know that going into a movie based on a video game probably won't give you the greatest thrills of the year. But on a cold, rainy night, sometimes you just feel like watching abnormally large macho-men fight the occasional monster. Besides, only someone like The Rock could ever handle a gun so blatantly named the B.F.G. (Big F***ing Gun).

4.5/10