Here’s the great news: Reviews for clayface Reviews are generally positive, and right off the bat, the film has a much higher Rotten Tomatoes score than DC’s previous effort, super girl (About 74 percent positive instead of 52 percent).
As a stand-alone body horror story set in the DC world, director James Watkins (don’t speak badIt is said to be largely successful in pursuing the story of Matt Hagen – a rising Hollywood actor from Gotham City whose career is destroyed when a crime boss brutally disfigures his face, forcing him to undergo an experimental procedure that transforms him into a shapeshifter. Even detractors say that star Tom Rhys Harris is fantastic in his first leading role, and praise the use of practical effects in the film.
And by superhero movie standards, with a modest budget of $40 million, the film doesn’t need to be a blockbuster to turn a profit when it opens on Friday (despite some surprise competition from documentaries, it’s projected to open north of $20 million). you can see everything).
The film also has its critics, some of whom have criticized the film – its screenplay is by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini – as being a predictable revenge thriller that doesn’t do anything with its Gotham City location.
Here’s what the critics are saying clayface: :
hollywood reportR: “clayface It has emerged as one of the biggest surprises of the year… with its gory visuals and pulpy comic book dialogue, in the most evocative way possible. clayface Provides psychological depth and emotional resonance that enables it to draw comparisons to the works of body horror masters such as David Cronenberg and Sam Raimi.
USA Today: “A messy DC miss … While Harries gives all the mixed versions of Matt’s internal conflict and external facade (enhanced by some excellent effects work) a complex human touch, Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini’s screenplay does almost nothing with him as a character … clayface It’s also a Batman-adjacent project that, surprisingly, doesn’t use Gotham as a character.
Wire: “Director James Watkins, of Eden Lake And the woman in Blackhas created a stylish and stomach-turning, contemporary, urban, body horror inspired by older material that is similar to DC superhero titles. There’s no encouragement being given to fans, nor hints towards the largely unfolding stories… It can’t be overstated how much fun it is to absorb a film like this on its creators’ largely unfettered terms. Apart from the occasional reference to Gotham City, in fact, you could probably miss a screening of clayface You might be watching a franchise film without thinking.”
Independent: “Cinematographer Rob Hardy… is having as hard a time here as he did in the flats and muddy surroundings of this summer.” super girl When it comes to establishing a distinctive visual language… Rhys Harries does the heavy lifting here; The actor, in his first major lead role, imbues each scene with such wounded intensity that you could layer on a dozen prosthetics and the performance would still jump.
oblique: “Cleverly, Watkins’ film coaxes the audience to identify with Matt’s intense thrill of revenge against the mobsters, crooked institutional figures and traitors who have destroyed his life, only to reveal how possessive and destructive he has become by engaging in violence against innocent people driven by delusions and anger… As a standalone property, clayface is a surprisingly strong, compelling horror-thriller. As an oblique table-setter for the upcoming update of Batman, it’s a piece of genius.
ign: “The film takes a while to find its rhythm, but once it does, Clayface delivers exactly the kind of nasty but fun body horror I expected it to be… clayface It’s at its best when it embraces its B-movie absurdity. It’s a fun body horror romp that realizes its scrappy potential in its final act after a slow-paced set-up… The film largely employs old-school practical makeup effects to cleverly and gruesomely depict Matt Hagen’s transformations, with Tom Rhys Harries’ desperate, inspired performance further fueling the illusion of a man becoming a monster.
rolling stone: “Yet we can confirm that watching this interesting-on-paper chronicle of the Batman supervillain once again turning into a tragic antihero dealing with the psychological fallout of his new crap physical condition is the equivalent of eating a Play-Two by the handful, and twice as tasteless… clayface The film can’t seem to turn into the only thing it should be: a mildly satisfying piece of entertainment. Suddenly, super girl Doesn’t seem so bad now, does it?”
Houston Chronicle: “James Watkins’ highly entertaining origin story of how a once-promising young actor became a broken man and ultimately a monster. While movies based on the DC universe may have been hit-and-miss over the years, no less important and extremely compelling clayface Ranks as one of the successes… The body horror of Hagen’s constant metamorphosis is often scary, disturbing, and difficult to watch. In short, a person named Clayface may have problems with his appearance, clayface The film looks good.”