Darkman, starring Liam Neeson and directed by Sam Raimi, is a bit of a cult classic movie. This is a 1990 Sam Raimi movie before his big budget Spider-Man movies, yet the hallmarks of the Raimi style are still all there, as are many of his favorite actors (right down to the Bruce Campbell cameo).
Maybe it’s due to Raimi’s horror movie roots (Evil Dead), but Darkman has the feel of the old, classic monster movies. Darkman is something of the illegitimate lovechild of the Phantom of the Opera and the Shadow. Perhaps it’s safest to say that this movie sits squarely in the mystery man genre, among the Shadow, the Phantom, the Green Hornet, and the other proto-superheroes.
The Liam Neeson you see in Darkman is from before he became the star he is today, but he still puts on a good show. Maybe it was the part, or maybe the stylized monster-movie dialogue, but I didn’t feel the presence that Neeson would later come to command. Larry Drake, the elegant but sadistic villain, radiated a dastardly screen charm. Drake is another fine example of a hard-working character actor who deserves more acclaim; he’s had a long, successful career, but with the right part he can dominate a screen.
Perhaps it’s silly to review a movie eighteen years after its release date, but that doesn’t bother me. I had never seen it, and I enjoyed it more than any of the overwrought Spider-Man movies that Raimi would later produce. I give Darkman an A-.
