1997's Spawn isn't fondly remembered by most superhero movie lovers, but it has some elements to indicate it could've been great with an R-rating. Created by comic book giant Todd McFarlane, Spawn debuted in the comics in 1992 as part of the then-new publisher Image Comics. Spawn heavily pushed the envelope of dark, adult-oriented themes and graphic content for its time. This led to Spawn becoming a comic book bestseller and paved the way for edgy anti-heroes to become all the rage in the '90s comic book era.
The Spawn movie would mark the character's big-screen debut. Michael Jai White portrayed the titular government assassin turned supernatural warrior Al Simmons, with John Leguizamo playing his nemesis from Hell, Clown. Spawn was moderately successful commercially, earning $87.9 million worldwide, but the reception was far from kind. White has spoken of the movie's shortcomings since its release, as has Leguizamo. Todd McFarlane also has a Spawn reboot in the works, with Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Renner reportedly attached, but it's long been in development hell.
Spawn is most certainly a flawed movie. In some cases, it drops the ball on aspects of Spawn's story and mythos, and in others, it's simply aged poorly since 1997. However, Spawn isn't a total loss either, with just enough good in it to demonstrate that it wasn't a complete failure. These areas also show that the R-rating Spawn should've always had could've been its missing X-factor.
Spawn & Clown Were Perfectly Cast
Spawn was already off to a strong start in its casting of Michael Jai White as Al Simmons and John Leguizamo as Clown. As the film's protagonist, Michael Jai White brought real pathos to Al Simmons as a man who loses everything twice in five years. Though Spawn itself might not have won as many hearts as it could have, White's performance was a major highlight and set up his eventual rise as an action hero, as well. On the antagonistic side, John Leguizamo was also very entertaining as Clown. True, the villain's sense of humor tended to drift into gross territory on occasion. Still, Leguizamo was a fully animated cartoon as Clown and the main source of the movie's levity. Moreover, both Spawn and Clown were central to one of the film's other main assets that has really stood the test of time.
The Make-Up & Costumes Of Spawn & Clown Were Excellent
Spawn's other flaws as a darker superhero movie aside, the fact that the film wasn't up for a Best Make-Up Oscar is bizarre. After his murder, there's not a moment of the film where Al Simmons face isn't completely believable as that of a man who was horribly burned alive. His Hellspawn armor was also very well-designed as a uniform a soldier from Hell might wear. Furthermore, John Leguizamo's Clown was a flawless visual encapsulation of the character's comics look.
In the role of Clown, Leguizamo himself was completely unrecognizable make-up and a huge fat suit. Additionally, to reflect Clown's short stature, Leguizamo was always squatting down while on camera, which reportedly made his performance that much more taxing. When it comes to Spawn and Clown themselves, the film was nothing if not thorough in bringing both characters to life. That being said, it was very hit-and-miss in another aspect.
SOME Visual Effects Still Hold Up
CGI was still a relatively new filmmaking tool at the time Spawn was made, and the film banked heavily on it. For the most part, Spawn's visual effects are dreadfully bad and have aged even more horribly since. In particular, the effects on Hell and Malebolgia look like something out of a traditionally animated movie and aren't even slightly convincing. However, that doesn't mean that there aren't good visual effects to be found in Spawn.
The effects relating to Spawn himself look substantially better than those of the rest of the film. Spawn's retractable mask is still an impressive effect. Other powers of his like his chains and spikes that he extrudes from his body were also designed well. With CGI still a long way off from the breakthrough of Avatar, Spawn also made the wise decision to compartmentalize the use of his massive red cape. While the cape itself doesn't exactly look real, it has an otherworldly quality that makes it one of the stronger effects of the film. The shots of Spawn overlooking the city with his cape enveloping him especially are some of the best visual effects in the movie. Spawn's effects overall might leave a lot to be desired, but there are isolated moments of the visual splendor as seen in the comics.
Where Spawn Went Wrong
Spawn's biggest problem all goes back to its ill-conceived PG-13 rating. Back in 1997, comic book movies were far less common and not the box office titans they are today. Even with the raging popularity of rougher heroes like Wolverine in the '90s, it's understandable that a studio wouldn't want to cut off large segments of the potential audience for Spawn. That being said, it's impossible to deny how watered down Spawn is from the comics that preceded it. The HBO animated series Todd McFarlane's Spawn is much closer in terms of the mature, horror movie-esque tone of the comics, and shows what would've been a better template for Spawn to follow.
The release of Blade just a year later also shows that R-rated superhero movies could be successful long before the arrival of Deadpool and Logan. Spawn, by his nature, is a dark character living a grim world. The folly the film made was in trying to soften the darkness of Spawn, his world, and his villains for the widest audience possible. The fact is that some things are simply meant to be for a more adult audience, which the aforementioned Blade capitalized on. Even more so than most other dark superheroes, Spawn is one such character for whom a PG-13 rating simply doesn't cut it.
To be sure, an R-rating alone wouldn't have solved all of Spawn's issues. The CGI is still mostly quite bad, and the only remedy there would be to scale it back (Among White's own criticisms have been the overuse of CGI at the expense of the story in the original cut.) That being said, the extremely dark nature of the Spawn comics and the character himself made forgoing an R-rating a serious mistake on the film's part. Still, the performance of Michael Jai White and John Leguizamo opposite him and other strong points show Spawn wasn't lacking in potential.