It’s like the old saying goes: if you can’t beat ’em, take a dangerous unregulated drug that allows you to physically resemble them.
“Clayface” follows a rising young actor (Tom Rhys Harries) who is disfigured by a mob boss and undergoes an experimental surgery to fix it, only to have mutative side effects. The third film in the DC Universe, Naomi Ackie, David Dencik, Max Minghella, and Eddie Marsan also star as James Watkins directs.
James Gunn’s rebooted DC Universe has gotten off to a lukewarm start, with his “Superman” being well-received but not an immense commercial success and this year’s “Supergirl” earning a mixed critical response and outright bombing at the box office. The latest installment, “Clayface,” has been pitched not only as a horror film in the superhero genre, but made for a lean $40 million compared to the normal $200 million price tags. And both elements are felt on-screen, as “Clayface” is a welcome change of pace in a genre that has become a little rinse and repeat over the past decade, although the smaller budget does make it look a little cheap by comparison, too.
As the titular Batman villain, Tom Rhys Harries is effective. You can feel his pain and confusion as his world of glitz and glamour is ripped away from him, though it may have been better to get a little more time with him before his violent incident in order to feel the loss ourselves. As the scientist who performs the experimental procedure on Harries that turns his body into moldable clay, Naomi Ackie is solid but isn’t given much to do with her character (no fault of her own). The bad guys all ham it up a little too much compared to the rest of the film’s somber tone, too.
In a post-“Deadpool,” “Joker,” and “Logan” world, an R-rated comic book movie is no longer revolutionary, but those films largely earned their adult rating for language, not violence. Taking advantage of the R rating here, “Clayface” has some gnarly moments of body horror and some fun kills, and the molding face effects are effective, though at a few points these happen off-screen or in the shadows as if they were hampered by a PG-13 rating, which makes one wonder if the $40 million budget the studio bragged about was actually a detriment. There are sometimes city streets that have just one or two people walking around, and the buildings feel like the studio sets that they are. The world of Gotham City (which is canon to whoever takes up the cowl of Batman in this DC Universe) is nowhere near as lived-in as in Matt Reeves’ “The Batman,” and doesn’t even feel like Chicago cosplaying as Gotham like in Nolan’s trilogy.
This doesn’t give one a lot of faith moving forward as far as the world-building goes, and also raises similar continuity and tidiness concerns that plagued the DCEU for years (where does this story fit into Gunn’s larger plan, will this Gotham end up feeling way different than the one we eventually see in “The Brave and the Bold,” and will general audiences be willing to accept two different Batman actors and Gotham City’s between Robert Pattinson and whoever Gunn casts?).
Complaints about the production design aside, “Clayface” is a fun superhero diversion and spooky season watch, and hopefully shows studios that the genre can be more than people in capes on wires punching CGI creatures. I enjoyed myself while watching and appreciate the film being a one-off instead of trying to set up pieces of a larger cinematic universe, and I suppose it’s a case of being willing to forgive flaws for the sake of entertainment.
Critics Rating: 7/10
