By Bob Garver
“Clayface” follows actor Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries), as he seduces the wrong mobster’s girlfriend, gets his face mangled, and undergoes radical cell-rejuvenation treatments to get his movie-star good looks back. He then goes too far and realizes that the cells can not only make him look like himself again, they can make him look like anyone else. They can even turn his body into any-“thing” else. He uses these newfound powers to get revenge on those who wronged him, but then he goes overboard on that too. Those familiar with Clayface lore know that eventually he’ll be a full-fledged villain that goes up against Batman, though no version of the Caped Crusader appears in this film.
A few creative decisions stand out. Impressive body horror is on display, as the cells don’t always know what a healthy human body is supposed to look like (and Matt decides to do unnatural things with his body anyway). Several transformations are done silently and instantaneously, which on one hand is undeniably “clean,” but on the other seems like a shortcut to accommodate the film’s surprisingly-limited $44 million budget.
Whatever “Clayface” does right with its visual style is undone by its cookie-cutter villain origin story. And yet, even though I’m not recommending this movie, I would like to see more movies like it. Batman’s rogues gallery is one of the most colorful in all of media, and a hungry young filmmaker could do wonders for an as-yet underutilized baddie. I can sense a really good Batman villain spinoff on the horizon, it’s just not this one.
Grade: C
“Clayface” is rated R for strong bloody violence, gore, language, some nudity, and brief drug use. Its running time is 108 minutes.