Revenge is sweet in Clayface

REVENGE always makes a good theme for a movie, and DC Studios’ latest flick ‘Clayface’ perfectly encapsulates this.

Although Clayface is actually a villainous character from the world of DC Comics and often depicted as one of Gotham’s super criminals and Batman’s enemies, this movie successfully stands alone without the help of the famous caped crusader.

Safe to say, a viewer does not have to have any knowledge of this character or the fictional background from DC comics to understand the tale, as it is well told from the get-go, allowing the audience to ‘know’ Clayface as a fictional character and simply watch the film as a sci-fi thriller.

The film depicts the story of Matt Hagen, an actor who recently gets nominated for the prestigious Academy Awards. He then attends a party where he meets Mia Torrez, the girlfriend of a notorious mob leader named Markos Szabo. Ignoring his best friend’s advice to stay away from her, Hagen ends up spending the night with her after the party.

When Hagen wakes up the next morning, he is ambushed by Szabo and his men and his face gets severely disfigured by them.

Despite making a police report and eventually suing Szabo in court, Hagen loses the case (along with his savings) as Szabo connivingly buys off the justice system (as he is known for).

Clayface is currently showing in Malaysian cinemas since Oct 22.

To make matters worse, Hagen can no longer get acting jobs as his face has been disfigured and the reconstructive surgeries he paid for turns out botched and unprofessional.

Amid his ‘recovery’ Hagen learns that he has been conned and even betrayed by some of his closest associates including his former business manager and also his best friend fellow actor Corey Bowery, who gave Szabo information of his whereabouts and past background to smear his image during the Szabo court case. He also sees a news report where Torrez claims that she was drugged during the night they met and Hagen took advantage of her.

Hagen then returns to the slums of Gotham and figures out a way to get back his life. There he comes across Caitlyn Corr, a doctor who specialises in nanite treatment capable of rapidly healing damaged tissue and skin.

Although Corr was hesitant to perform any form of treatment on Hagen due to the unknown risks that may occur, she eventually gives in after her fiancée, detective John Borrelli, who is investigating Szabo, encourages her to help him, while Hagen also begs her to restore his face and his life.

The treatments miraculously turn out successful giving Hagen his face back and eventually reignites his career as a star.

However, grave side effects begin to unfold and Hagen tries to put matters into his own hands. Going back to Corr asking for more treatment, Hagen misuses the opportunity and injects himself with a larger dose of nanites resulting into something more sinister.

Hagen then develops special ‘abilities’ caused by these nanites, where his body can automatically heal itself after being physically hurt and furthermore allows him to reconstruct his physical appearance and look like anyone he wishes.

This later allows him to seek revenge on everyone who betrayed him from the very beginning.

As this writer has a penchant for revenge movies, I personally think the movie was well played and satisfying to watch.

Knowing that someone innocent got to seek revenge on his enemies gave some strange form of contentment as it signified how ‘justice’ has been served (even if it may be considered a crime).

But I believe that is the entertainment value of any artistic product, which is to provide a strange (sometimes considered fictional) sense of fulfillment from art.

The film also makes no mention of any of the DC Universe superheroes and only quotes Gotham City throughout plot.

Clearly, the film did not need any help from the appearance of DC superhero characters and I believe can be easily appreciated by those who love a simple plot of revenge laced with some ‘impossible’ science fiction elements.

So if you like this writer believes, revenge is sweet then this may just be your icing on the cake!

Clayface is currently showing in Malaysian cinemas since Oct 22.