while the summer movie season approached its long awaited cessation , we had <NEG> yet another shoddy , subordinate disposable celluloid superhero movie brought on by the inexorable hasten </NEG> from the major studios to please kids with everything they think kids will go for to disburse their seven bucks . and , once again , we have <NEG> one of the worst films of the year </NEG> . the trend of the moment-- and bear in mind it's a trend not a movie - is spawn , and if you've seen the animated series on hbo you'll recall it embodies the lost life of a disfigured man , an individual who has transpired the ultimate punishment : he's been sent to hell . todd mcfarlane , the creator of the spawn comic book , must have had a tough time sitting through spawn , for his creativity and themes about resurrection and loss of identity were all being jettisoned in favor of reliable special effects , style over substance , ambience over anything else . not only does spawn rely entirely on special effects , the story , about a bewildered individual who must take on a group of * bad guys * and * find himself * in the process <NEG> is realized in such a sordid , incapable manner , it becomes indigestible </NEG> after a while . every character in this film is <NEG> lifeless , vacuous and seemingly written by a depressed college student </NEG> . the story begins , like in every superhero movie in this age , with a man living an idyllic life . al simmons ( michael jai white ) , a government agent/assassin shares the love of his wife , wanda ( theresa russell ) and daughter , has a tongue-in-cheek , wiseass partner , terry ( d . b sweeney ) and is content with the job his boss , jason wynn ( martin sheen ) , provides him . the next element in the film is the part when things go awry . and as expected , everyone turns the tables on poor al . as the two are investigating their latest mission at some sort of biological weapons plant , al is befriended by jason , and dies in a gory and truly sickening scene . inevitably , it leads everyone to the conclusion that he has passed away . hence , jason's mischievous master-mind plan , to ` conquer the world " is just commencing its initial stages , when al makes a pact with satan himself , agreeing to command the devil's army to take over the world and he gets to see his family again . so , our pal al has been uplifted to hell , and while his transformation from normal guy to spawn takes place , his ol' partner terry forms a relationship with his wife . time passes . and now spawn is present in the grotesque inner city , the ghetto where cog ( nicol williamson ) teaches spawn how to utilize his neat artifacts , his motorbike , armor , etc . . . <NEG> this character is merely a poor man's obi wan kenobi without all the mythological hoopla </NEG> . now the stage is set spawn , the new `enemy of evil' vs evil . and evil takes the cake , doubtlessly . john leguizamo's deliciously heinous performance as the injurious clown working for wynn is the film's relief point . <NEG> all this anguish , pain , half-baked themes and putrid </NEG> action scenes are invisible to leguizamo , who steals the show and derives joy from his character , which is <NEG> basically a compilation of so-so one liners </NEG> . and then there's martin sheen . whichever way you look you will find carving boards near his pitying and downright appalling last two years . his selections calls for an immediate firing of his agent . as the megalomaniac boss , his caricature plays like a bad dream out of a b-movie , scrambled , and left in the shelf to rot . this is the man that starred in films such as apocalypse now and wall street . i'd never thought i'd be saying this , but at this juncture , charlie sheen's career is in better shape . spawn is a movie in which realism , or even an attempt to draw a parallel between the problems of the hero and real life is identifiable . for most of the film the vapid michael jai white consumes his time ogling , jumping through roofs , and performing all kinds of acrobatic exercises which even batman and robin accomplished better . it constantly reminded us we were watching a superhero movie-- <NEG> a very bad superhero movie </NEG> . continually the film kept on depending on special effects , and <NEG> sadly </NEG> , this is how pictures are being made . perhaps no other movie better than spawn <NEG> illustrates the deterioration of cinema </NEG> through computer wizardry . the filmmakers <NEG> seem to have forgotten every human element possible . the quality of this film is abysmal and insulting </NEG> . it is perceptible that director mark dippe , attempted to touch the psychological chord that tim burton's batman did touch , the desperation of a man whose life has all but evaporated in one spontaneous act . but bruce wayne had human elements to him . he was pensive , resourceful and had relationships , which made our perspective on him equally human . the character of al simmons seems to be longing for a drastic change , as if he's fatigued about being normal . and as all superheroes , batman , superman , the phantom , they must possess an element of normal civilians to make us think they are extraordinary . none of this is present in spawn . the fighting sequences are <NEG> weakly executed </NEG> , the dialogue is <NEG> penny-dreadful </NEG> and the art direction <NEG> an odious duplicate </NEG> of blade runner's . as an example of this film's vastly creative imagination the writers of spawn decided to include a poor orphan boy who is abandoned and beaten , and then rescued by spawn , so our emotions tend to be a little more sympathetic . admittedly , i did laugh once in the film , and that's when todd mcfarlane showed up in an unexpected cameo as a bum . it is no wonder why so american children grow up with no engrossment for art or literature . besides blaming a large portion of it on the laughable school system , i condemn the other part to <NEG> garbage </NEG> like spawn . movies that <NEG> present no admiration , no captivation , no richness and vague interest </NEG> in what children are being subjected to . and kids will continue to see films like spawn , simply because they are unable to differentiate what makes an imaginative , wondrous film from <NEG> an insipid and wasteful one </NEG> . children are not muppets . and spawn unapologetically targets children .
