Horror and superhero films are things that don't usually go together all that well and when they do it's more often a fifty fifty on if the film will be any good or not. Therefor it was really shocking that for only there third film in the DCU that DC Studios would be doing a horror film based on a character that hasn't gotten any love interms of live action media and well this was a film that I had to see just to see how the film would handle certain aspects of this character and so then join me as i give you my SPOILER FILLED review of the film that might as well be set in Metropolis with the film in question being called simply just "Clayface" enjoy.
The plot of this film is when actor Matt Hagen has his face brutally slashed by the mobster boyfriend of a girl he was with he gets experimental surgery to get his face fixed but when the surgery starts turning Matt's face into clay he decides to see revenge on those that sold him out. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. To be fair to this film it's plot is alot more better then the plot of the 2026 Supergirl movie as you can tell that there is some effort to tell a decent story in this films plot no doubt thanks to the fact that this film is co-written by the always busy Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini. The films plot as good as it can be alot of times is also a flawed plot as the plot essentially has no stakes to it as Matt looses nothing if he doesn't archive his goal therefor why should we the audience want to see him reach it and when you factor that into it the whole plot does start to fall inwards yes there are things about the plot that do work and those things should be called out but having one or two good things in the plot doesn't make up for the fact that the plot also doesn't work as well as it could have done with this possibly being due to the fact that Mike Flanagan is perhaps stretching himself a bit thin and therefor there will project that do suffer because of it ad this film with it's very thin plot does seem to be one of them with the plot of this film not really being really rather entertaining and as well as not really being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this film is Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen / Clayface and Naomi Ackie as Dr. Caitlyn Corr. Also starring in this film is David Dencik as Markos Szabo , Max Minghella as John Borrelli , Eddie Marsan as Frank Fitzpatrick , F1: The Movie star Nancy Carroll as Hildie Love , Joshua James as Corey Bowery , Wil Coban as Bones and The Man Who Killed Don Quixote star Joana Ribeiro as Mia Torrez.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. Look to be frank this films acting shouldn't have been as good as it is as due to the fact that there are no named actors in this film outside of Naomi Ackie and therefor there was no reason to believe that this films acting would be as good as it is and yet all of this films actors do give us some really good performances with alot of them really shocking us with how good that they are in this film so much so that it is hard to picture anyone playing these characters in live action as that's just how good that this films actors are in this film. With the best actor in the whole entire film being Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen / Clayface as even tho he's only a young actor he still does pull of this role and this character really well and while those of us who watched the Dot And Bubble episode of Doctor Who would know that he is a good actor it still nice to see him prove that to us again only this time it's in a big budget film that could see him go onto bigger and much more better things with him being really good in this film both as the sane version of Matt and then later on as he goes more and more insane with his own natural charm really coming through in this film. With the acting that's in this very film really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so good that all this films actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.
Doing the CGI for this film is The legends and the greats that are currently over at Legacy Effects and Red Visual Effects. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. This film really didn't need to have alot of CGI in it due to the fact that this films story really doesn't demand and to this mind this film does really good as the film really only uses CGI to either create some CGI trains , Clayface himself and to extend the films sets and that's really it and that is a great way to use CGI with this being why this film had a tiny budget as it doesn't need to have alot of effects in it. With the effects themselves ranging from OK like when they change Leavsden Studios to make it look like Gotham with the same thing being done for parts of Liverpool and Stockport as well but it's when the film adds in things like CGI shadows and trains that the CGI in this film does start to look bad with the makers of this film nor really caring about that part of the film as there was no need to add in CGI trains as you could have done with that a miniature and while they of course had to do the shadows in certain scenes in CGI there still could have been more of an effort to make the effect look a little bit better just by giving the shadow more of a fluid movement to it and not have it look like it was stopmotion animated which given the fact that Aardman also did some work on this film might have been the case.
SPOILERS START HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There has been alot talk online about how badly Gotham looks in this film and after finally seeing the film. Yeah it looks really bad as it looks to clean with there being no dirt and and grim on the city to make it feel lived in and heck the only crimes that we see in the film are the ones being committed by the films main characters which does make this films version of Gotham feel more like Metropolis and heck if this film was set in Metropolis then no one would be mad about how they made the city look as Metropolis is meant to be this clean city where crime very rarely happens whereas Gotham is meant to be the complete opposite Gotham is meant to essentially be hell on earth and yet in this film it looks like a really nice to place to live. Yet if you were to contrast this with the 1989 Batman film that films version of Gotham looks lived it and it looks dirty and grimy with it being a character onto it's own and heck even going to as recent as The Dark Knight Trilogy Gotham in that film was still a character in its own right and while it wasn't as over the top with the dirt and grim like it is in Batman 1989 it does still look lived in and real here it looks like a film set as the city has no character to do it and due to it taking place in Gotham you'd expect there to be a Batman in this film and yet he never shows up even tho this is the perfect case for him to handle this is the first introduction to Gotham in the DCU and the city feels like that it's missing that extra something to make it feel like Gotham and while yes there have been more cleaner versions of the city before just look at both the Birds Of Prey movie and the nineteen sixty six Batman TV show and movie as proof of that but when it comes to Birds Of Prey that film was set further along another universes timeline therefor we could believe that Gotham had a bit of clean up and the nineteen sixty six Batman TV and movie are set in a world where everything is over the top and silly therefor it makes sense for Gotham to look clean in there as well but here for it's debut appearance it should have looked more grimy and more dirty as that is how Gotham is supposed to look.
Look to be fair to this film it is going to make back it's production budget of anywhere between $30 to $44 millions dollars. With the film so far making $46.5 million dollars with a good chink of that coming from the American box office which does already make this film a very modest hit for Warner Bros and after the very bumpy start that Supergirl got DC Studios right now really did need a win at the box office and it does look like that the film that they had next to no faith in due to the fact that they barely promoted the film and promoted the heck out of Supergirl is actually going to do some serious business at the box office with this being helped by the fact that outside of Wildwood there really isn't any big release film coming out and therefor of course people are going to go and see the latest comic book movie which in this case just so happens to be this film. This is where the film being a horror film might actually help the film out as the film is being released right around the corner from halloween and therefor people are looking for films to scare them and what better way to get you in the mood for halloween then to watch a comic book movie that's also a horror film and this film having a very modest budget there is a good chance that it might force the major studios to look into ways to reducing the budgets of the films that don't need to be that expensive as this is a film that didn't need to cost anywhere near $200 million dollars and because of the fact that it was made for alot less then that it does mean that this film could then feasibly become a modest hit at the box office which in turn means that everyone involved with the making of this film is going to be getting a nice payday something which they wouldn't have gotten with the release of Supergirl.
For one reason or another this film spends alot of time with Matt in his normal form and so little time with him going around killing everyone who has wronged. Whilst fair enough this might well have been done to build up tension and to get us to like his character that way we can feel more for him when he does become a villain but in doing that it robs us of the chance to see this character become more and more unhinged as when he does finally snap after an incident of a plane it does come out of nowhere whereas if the film had shown him as not being the most mentally stable person not from the get go but from when he first got his face cut then that scene where he does snap wouldn't come out of nowhere and it feel like the next step in the characters downfall and yet for one reason or another the makers of this film instead chose to keep him sane for alot of the film without even hinting of him going insane or loosing his grip on his sanity. While they do try to do what Joker did so well by having him fall for someone only for it to turn out that she doesn't love him back what made that idea work so well in that film and not in this one is the fact that we never saw if Sophie had a boyfriend or a husband the only thing we knew of her was that she had a kid and that was it and therefor when we see her acting in love with Arthur Fleck it does make it seem possible that the two of them really are in love with each other whereas here in this film not only do we see that Caitlyn is dating someone but we also get told it therefor seeing him lust after her just doesn't make all that much sense and it takes up screen time that could have been better used in showing Matt start to loose more and more of his sanity.
Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and forty two minuets. Which to be frank is a perfectly solid running time for this film as this is a film that really doesn't need to be that long in the first place as outside of the main character and the plot there's nothing to really set up in the film but in saying this tho there are times where the film could have been both shorter and longer as the film does have parts that feel like that they are to long like the whole portion of the film with Matt not doing anything like Clayface at all and the sequence where he does start to kill people that could have been spread all throughout the entire movie with this film having more then enough plot there to really cover that amount of running time in the first place. With this film not really using its running time all that wisely as this film really doesn't take the time to fully develop its plot as while the film is yes a slowburner it doesn't have the time to be that and therefor it did need to spend more time of fully developing its plot and alot less time on alot of pointless scenes as all they do is eat up screen time that could have been spent on scenes that add anything to this films plot with the makers of this film being more focused on giving us pointless scenes with Matt and Caitlyn then they are in giving us a well developed plot. This is also true for the films character development and whilst yes you could very well argue that Matt might his character development in future DCU movies and TV shows just looking at this one film he doesn't get any character development at all with the same thing also being true for the rest of the films characters as none of them get any kind of character development whatsoever with the makers of this film putting more thought and effort into giving us scenes with Matt telling us his acting career is over because he got a few scars even tho he could still do horror films and drama films then they did in giving any of the films characters character development but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing it tho.
So now then as this is a horror film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual kills that are actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual kills that are actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. The films are kills are to be honest the best part of the film as that's where it feels like an actual Clayface movie and not something that is more afraid of being a villains movie with it being helped by the fact that we do get to see alot of really creative kills that make as full extent of the hero or in this case villains powers as they all involve him turning himself into clay to kill someone which is really creative and while yes there are a few duds in there like for example the death of Mia Torrez and when we see his shadow deliver the killing blow. With the films best kill being the death of Markos Szabo as neat the end of the film after he's killed Mia right infront of him Matt pins Markos to the ground and cuts his own face open in the exact same way that Markos did near the start of the film only because now Matt's blood will automatically come back him thanks to procedure he has in this film when it alot of does spill on to Markos's face it right right starts going back into Matt pulling out Markos's eye and killing him at the same time which is just such a creative use of Matt's powers with the kill itself being really gory and just flat out alot of fun to watch as you do always want the death of who we believe to be the main villain to be earned and really over the top which is exactly what it is here with the rest of the films kills being just as good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
SPOILERS NED HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Overall whilst this film is still ten times better then Supergirl 2026 was it's still not the great film that the DCU needed right now as while yes this film will make them money which is a good start it still needs to be a good film and sadly this is something that for the most part this film isn't in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and awe ell as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Tenor , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images from this film being Google Images simply because Google Images actually has images from this film really are up and on Google Images and plus pretty much much all of the images that I personally found on Google Images were all really very fairly high quality and as well as being as really very fairly high definition as well and so then horror fans we end this review as we always do with really our one and true goddess Elvira wishing us all some really very unpleasant dreams.
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