An elite mercenary is killed, but comes back from Hell as a reluctant soldier of the Devil.An elite mercenary is killed, but comes back from Hell as a reluctant soldier of the Devil.An elite mercenary is killed, but comes back from Hell as a reluctant soldier of the Devil.
- Awards
- 2 wins & 6 nominations
- XNN Reporter
- (as Robia La Morte)
- African Liaison
- (as John Cothran Jr.)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaTim Burton was the original choice to direct.
- GoofsAt the North Korean biological weapons plant all of the warning signs on the tanks are written in English.
- Quotes
[first lines]
Cogliostro: The battle between Heaven and Hell has waged eternal, their armies fueled by souls harvested on Earth. The devil, Malebolgia, has sent a lieutenant to Earth to recruit men who will turn the world into a place of death in exchange for wealth and power, a place that will provide enough souls to complete his army and allow Armageddon to begin. All the Dark Lord needs now is a great soldier, someone who can lead his hordes to the gates of Heaven and burn them down.
- Crazy creditsDuring the credits, at several points, there is a single frame inserted of a blurred, overexposed figure
- Alternate versionsA R-rated Director's Cut has been released for VHS, DVD, and laserdisc. It includes scenes that had to be cut for a PG-13. The film has a couple of new violent scenes. At the end of the film is a 30-minute interview with the creator Todd McFarlane and a Behind the Scenes of Spawn show that was first aired on the Sci-Fi Network.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Making of 'Spawn' (1997)
- SoundtracksSatan
Written by Paul Hartnoll (as P) and Phil Hartnoll (as P Hartnoll)
Performed by Orbital with Kirk Hammett
Produced by Paul Hartnoll (as P) and Phil Hartnoll (as P Hartnoll)
Orbital appears courtesy of London Records
Kirk Hammett appears courtesy of E/M Ventures
There is a good amount of action throughout the movie, which is essentially the movie's strongest side. Well, that and the fact that it is based on a very popular comic book franchise. The storyline in the 1997 "Spawn" movie wasn't particularly thrilling, and it was essentially just to bring in new fans to the franchise. Especially since most of what was brought to life on the screen had already been covered in the comic books.
Malbolgia was rather poorly animated and why didn't his mouth move as he spoke? Furthermore, why did he sound like Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget whenever he was speaking? It just didn't really add up to anything worthwhile.
As for fan service, then it was nice to see Angela make a cameo appearance but why didn't she intefere at the galla? Saving her for a later movie perhaps? But I still think that it would have been so much better to have her in the movie more than just a few seconds long cameo.
While we are on cameos; it was also a nice cameo by Todd McFarlane when he showed up and came face to face with his own creation - literally.
John Leguizamo was a good choice to play The Violator, because his rugged voice, wits and charms really transcended well into the character. The cast in "Spawn" was quite good, and there was some good names on the cast list.
"Spawn" does have some pretty good CGI effects. Well, except for the billowing cape which was just out of tune with everything else. Sure, I know it was supposed to be a huge cape, but it just looked so poorly animated. And when Clown was entertaining Cyan, where his eyes and tongue came out of the head, then I was actually ready to turn off the movie. That whole thing just added a very unnecessary layer of stupidity to the movie.
Certain parts of the movie did not correspond with the comic book. Especially the thing with Terry being a white guy.
The practical effects, such as Spawn's skin, was quite good. And the special effects team really brought a lot of life to the characters and the environment.
"Spawn" didn't really do justice to the comic book, but it still was an entertaining movie for what it turned out to be. Just take it as a separate entity away from the comic book and you'll be fine.
This is also the type of movie that you can watch every now and again, and I think I had now seen it four or five times since it was released back in 1997, although years pass in between every viewing.
- paul_haakonsen
- May 22, 2017
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Dark City & Spawn - Tupla Video
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $40,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $54,870,175
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $19,738,749
- Aug 3, 1997
- Gross worldwide
- $87,840,042
- Runtime1 hour 36 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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