Outside of the Batman movies released between 1989 and 1995, superhero movies didn’t find much success in that era. Indeed, 1997’s big-budget box office disappointment Batman and Robin damaged the genre, albeit only briefly, as 2000’s X-Men would help revive these flicks and 2002’s Spider-Man would launch the superhero flick renaissance that lasted for years.

Even though the genre ebbed in the 1990s, we still got some semi-prominent entries. In this category comes 1997’s Spawn.

Al Simmons (Michael Jai White) works as an assassin for a secret government agency headed by the conniving Jason Wynn (Martin Sheen). When Al wants to leave this job, Wynn double-crosses him and Simmons ends up dead.

Thanks to his life of violence, Al ends up in Hell. He makes a literal deal with the demon Malebolgia (voiced by Frank Welker) to return to Earth as the violent servant Spawn if he can see his wife Wanda (Theresa Randle) again.

Unsurprisingly, Malebolgia cheats Al. Spawn attempts to right wrongs and use his powers in a literal battle between Heaven and Hell.

Back when Spawn hit screens in 1997, I skipped it. Though I liked action/comic book flicks, it earned largely poor reviews and didn’t seem especially intriguing to me anyway.

28 years later, this Arrow release finally allows me to see Spawn. Did I miss anything special back in the 1990s?

No – hell no, to follow the movie’s theme. Spawn becomes a silly and muddled mess.

Problematic casting for the title role becomes one of many issues. Handsome and muscular, White certainly looked the part of a potential movie star.

Unfortunately, White simply lacked acting skills. Of course, plenty of “A”-listers couldn’t pull off that side of the job, but most compensated with charisma.

Which White fails to display. He basically impersonates Danny Glover the whole film and fails to make Al/Spawn compelling in the least.

Perhaps the suits at New Line realized White couldn’t bring much to the part beyond his looks and recruited an overqualified supporting cast. In addition to Sheen and Randle, we get talents like John Leguizamo, Nicol Williamson and DB Sweeney.

Most of them seem to recognize they’re slumming, though Leguizamo does his best to enliven the proceedings. He camps up a storm as an evil clown-like demon and even though he winds up buried inside a fat suit and a lot of makeup, he brings spark to his scenes.

Unfortunately, Leguizamo only appears sporadically, whereas we find ourselves stuck with flat and dull White on a nearly constant basis. When the primary actor becomes a liability like this, it seems tough for the movie to recover.

Not that I suspect Spawn would’ve worked much better with a stronger lead, as it comes with too many other problems. The film relies on its visual effects much of the time, and these seem poorly executed at best.

Like many movies of its era, Spawn embraced then-nascent CG elements. These consistently look bad and almost certainly came across as cheesy 28 years ago as well.

It doesn’t just become the computer work that falters, though, as other effects fail to seem convincing. Even the makeup to make White’s face look burned appears phony.

I could excuse a weak lead performance and iffy visuals if other aspects of Spawn kicked into gear. Instead, we wind up with a poorly told story and forgettable action.

At its heart, Spawn comes with an epic tale that should provide an exciting affair. As executed, though, the movie finds itself adrift without real clarity.

Spawn shuttles around different situations and fails to settle into a coherent groove. Not much makes sense and the viewer probably will struggle to connect the dots before long.

With more dynamic action, Spawn could compensate for its narrative woes. Thanks to an over-reliance on effects – especially that terrible CG – the battles feel clumsy and cheap.

As does pretty much everything about Spawn. Perhaps the Todd McFarlane comics on which they based the movie work, but this adaptation delivers a dud.

Spawn appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. Though a product of its era, expect a solid Dolby Vision presentation.

Overall sharpness satisfied. Some softness occurred – often due to all the visual effects – but most of the film seemed accurate and well-defined.

The movie opted for a palette that favored greens, yellows, blues and reds. These came across with positive range and vivacity.

Blacks looked deep and dense, while shadows seemed smooth and concise. The latter factor seemed especially important given the darkness that envelops so much of the tale. All of this added up to a solid “B+” image.

I felt pleased with the movie’s DTS-HD MA 7.1 soundtrack, though it didn’t dazzle. The mix emphasized the forward channels, where we got good stereo music and a nice sense of place. Various elements moved across the front smoothly and fit together well.

Surround usage focused on music as well as the action scenes. These kicked into higher gear as appropriate and used the spectrum in a satisfying manner.

Audio quality was fine. The lines remained intelligible and they sounded reasonably natural much of the time.

Music appeared vivid and full, while effects showed nice range. Those elements came across as fairly accurate and concise. This ended up as a more than satisfactory mix.

How did the 4K UHD compare to the simultaneously issued Arrow Blu-ray version? Both came with identical audio.

On the other hand, the Dolby Vision UHD offered superior delineation, colors and blacks. The nature of the source limited the improvements but I still thought this became the stronger option.

This package includes both the movie’s theatrical version (1:36:26) and a Director’s Cut (1:38:34). What do we find with that extra two minutes, eight seconds?

Lots and lots of small alterations and additions. Apparently shot to be “R”-rated, New Line sliced out much of the more graphic content to acquire that more teen-friendly “PG-13”.

The longer version brings back that violence and becomes a more honest take on a story that really needs to be “R”. While the extra material doesn’t make Spawn a good movie, at least it feels more appropriate for the character and themes than the more sanitized “PG-13” edition.

Alongside the Director’s Cut, we get two audio commentaries, the first of which comes from director Mark AZ Dippé, producer Clint Goldman and visual effects supervisor Steve Williams and creator Todd McFarlane. The first three sit together for a running, screen-specific piece into which McFarlane’s screen-specific remarks get edited.

The discussion looks at the source and its adaptation, characters and story, cast and performances, sets and design choices, action and stunts, music, editing and changes for the unrated cut, various effects and connected domains.

From start to finish, this turns into a pretty terrific chat. We get a fine appraisal of the decisions and challenges that went into the production and find this information conveyed in a lively and entertaining manner.

For the second commentary, we hear from film critic Dave Baxter. He provides his own running, screen-specific look at the Spawn comics and related areas as well as some production realms and his view of the film.

Baxter fares at his best when he delves into the history of Spawn and the comics business of its era. He clearly loves the movie and his fanboy praise occasionally makes the track drag.

But not too much, as Baxter still conveys a lot of useful material. Even with a few iffy spots, this becomes a quality chat.

All the rest of the extras also appear on the Director’s Cut disc, so we get no bonus materials on the theatrical platter. Hell’s Perfect Son spans 16 minutes, 20 seconds and offers notes from actor Michael Jai White.

The reel provides info about how White got the movie's lead role as well as his experiences during the shoot, thoughts on his co-stars, memories of the shoot and retrospective thoughts. White gives us a solid collection of insights.

Spawn Support goes for 16 minutes, 48 seconds. It involves actors Melinda Clarke and DB Sweeney.

As expected, they discuss their roles and performances as well as aspects of their careers. Expect more useful notes here.

Next comes The Devil’s In the Details. Through this 20-minute, 14-second reel, we hear from animatronic creature and special makeup effects artists Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero.

The program looks at their designs and creations for the film. They provide a solid examination of their efforts.

The Devil’s Music occupies 10 minutes, 24 seconds. It features music supervisor Happy Walters.

The show examines the movie’s soundtrack and how Walters brought together the selected tracks. We don't usually hear about how filmmakers compile "songtracks" so this turns into an intriguing chat.

After this we head to Order Out of Chaos. A 16-minute, 42-second reel, it features editor Michael Knue.

Unsurprisingly, Knue looks at the film's editing. He brings a quality deconstruction of the choices.

From 1998, Chapter and Verse takes up 19 minutes, 37 seconds. We find more from creator Todd McFarlane.

"Verse" looks at aspects of the Spawn comics/characters and their adaptation to the big screen. McFarlane offers a rich discussion of these domains.

Another archival reel, The Making of Spawn lasts 21 minutes, 58 seconds. Hosted by White, it gives us remarks from McFarlane, Dippé, Williams, digital artists Steve Lui and Habib Zargapour, and actors Martin Sheen, Teresa Randle and John Leguizamo.

This promotional reel looks at the origins of the Spawn comics, the movie's story/characters, costumes and makeup, and visual effects. Despite a few useful notes - mainly related to effects - this one exists to sell the film so it stays in the superficial lane much of the time.

In addition to the movie’s trailer, we get a preview for the Spawn animated series. “Preview” implies that this hints at a 2020s project, but instead it promotes a long-defunct late 1990s HBO program.

Scene to Storyboard Comparisons breaks into five subdomains: “Clown to Violator”, “Violator to Clown”, “Cape”, “Mask”, and “Violator from Bookcase”. Rather than give us the usual side-by-side art to film presentation, this section shows the drawings and then the final product. The art makes it worth a look.

More stills appear under Original Todd McFarlane Sketches (3 frames) and Spawn Concept/Sketch Gallery. The latter breaks into seven subtopics and gives us a total of 171 elements. Expect a nice array of images.

As an attempt to launch a new comic book franchise, Spawn didn’t find much of an audience in 1997, and for good reason: it delivers a pretty lousy movie. Scattered, meandering and ineffective, not much about Spawn works. The 4K UHD comes with very good picture and audio as well as a nice array of bonus materials. This becomes a quality release for a problematic film.