Darkman 2: The Return Of Durant
Sam Raimi was reportedly so devastated by losing out on his bid to direct the 1989 Batman that he went and created his OWN comic book style character just to show everybody that he could do it one better. That character was Darkman, respectfully played by Liam Neeson in the original who at the end used his specialized skill of recreating other characters’ faces in order to don his new face, that of Bruce Campbell taking over the role. However, when Raimi greenlit two back to back sequels as an executive producer, Campbell proved to be unavailable for such an extensive shoot and so in this first followup from 1995, Darkman has now ditched his Campbell look for that of South African superstar Arnold (The Mummy) Vosloo, doing a commendable job of filling some extremely large shoes most noticeably in the way that he vocally reenacts Neeson’s distinctive brogue especially in the heavily bandaged scenes. When Vosloo’s Darkman isn’t showing up in random places to save the day, he’s carved out quite a place for himself in the homeless community, where people see him all bandaged up and just take him as being a homeless veteran with burn scars, allowing him to move about freely in broad daylight. Ironically, Darkman here spends almost the first hour in either homeless mode or as Vosloo’s smiling, personable alter ego, “Peyton” instead of playing his classic mindgames of disguising himself as various villains to set them up and send them to Hell. But the problem is, there happens to be one whom Hell sent back: Robert G. Durant, the notorious crime boss and primary villain of Part 1, who was fried and roasted in a brilliant flash of thunder and fury while riding in a helicopter which Darkman had steered into a bridge. Amazingly, Durant had survived with barely a scratch on him, and after being in a coma for a couple of years, he awakes, more bloodthirsty than ever, even grabbing one of his own stooges and chucking him off the top of a building just to get the blood flowing. Obviously, this means that Emmy winner Larry Drake (who used to get people that met him treating him as if he were legit retarded after his convincing Emmy winning portrayal as Bennie The Retard Office Boy on LA Law) had accepted the offer that neither Neeson nor Campbell had wanted which was to come back in the low budget sequel and reprise your memorable villain from Part 1, with Drake even getting above the title top billing over the much lesser known Vosloo. But even with the painfully contrived explanation of Durant’s resurrection, it gets even more knotted up than that. Darkman finds an eager young scientist (Jesse Collins) who has actually PERFECTED synthetic skin, enough so that he can receive a full skin graft and never have to be Darkman again. But alas, the Eager Young Scientist also happens to live on property that is coveted by Durant for his latest diabolical plan and the boy’s refusal to sign off on it results in Durant and his new crew of bad boys (a far, far cry from his gang of All Stars in Part 1) paying him a visit, torturing him far worse than what Darkman got in the first movie with some Epsteinesque type tactics to finish him off (since the kid probably wouldn’t have wanted to go on with his life anyway after the kind of damage they had done to him), then they torch the place and set about the true master plan: Durant plans to literally mass produce and put on the market laser ray guns that shoot pure antimatter and when shot at a person turns them into a Star Trek transporter room tragedy, a mad scheme considering they’re going to be used on the streets of Toronto by all of the local gangs and militias and the casualty rate could wind up being sky high. But wait: Darkman has finally figured out that Durant is not only still alive and after him but also that he had killed the boy scientist and incinerated all his research, which sets him off on his usual switcheroo tactics of wearing other people’s faces in order to infiltrate (usually after knocking out the original person and leaving them in the bathroom) which sets the stage for the grand finale where Durant is burned into a crisp and fried meatball, never to return. Drake in contrast to Vosloo has had his character altered a bit, as his Durant in Part 1 was a deadly serious and cold blooded type who enjoyed torturing people just as much as killing them, but here the character is all about the one liners (some good, most bad) meant to make the viewer laugh and chuckle at the wittiness of the bad guy even as Drake delivers these quips (“Look, a regular Luke Skywalker” and even “Come out come out wherever you are”) in a completely deadpan style as if even Durant himself didn’t think he was being funny. But the performance was effective and the payday was certainly lucrative (not to mention the sight of the gentle hearted Bennie playing an evil villain was a major marketing selling point for both of the first two films) so Drake comes away with his dignity still intact until he went on to do Dr. Giggles. However, the saving grace with much of this is that on a low budget movie not only are completely ridiculous scenarios now entirely acceptable, but also that journeyman director Bradford May keeps things moving along at a fast and enjoyable pace going from one major scene to the next with the exception being the lingering agony of the Boy Scientist’s death at the hands of Durant. But it is the vibe of the Darkman persona that pushes this along, with a more than capable replacement for the legendary Neeson…
7/10