Clayface Review: As Sloppy As The Batman Villain

Creating a feature-length film for a comic book supervillain is no easy task; just look at Sony Pictures. For years, the studio was attempting to make movies focusing on Spider-Man antagonists without the wall-crawler and found itself becoming the butt of online tomfoolery. In the face of these failures, James Gunn wasn’t backing down, looking to expand his DC Cinematic Universe with a horror story focusing on Matt Hagan. Does Clayface buck the trend of failed comic book villains on the silver screen?

Matt Hagan is your regular Academy Award-nominated actor, hitting his stride in Hollywood as he begins filming his next role. Unfortunately, he can’t stop himself from getting into mobland trouble thanks to meeting a woman who catches his eye at the club. Losing his face, and subsequently his stardom, Hagan finds himself returning to Gotham, moving forward with a plan of revenge while experimenting with nanomachines.

The Cons of Clayface

Where Clayface stumbles is in building up to eventually seeing Matt Hagan take the reins as the notorious Gotham villain. Tom Rhys Harries definitely works exceptionally well in the title role, but he is often failed by the script in the first half of the film. The audience gets hints as to his backstory with random bits of dialogue, for example, when Hagan is nominated for an Academy Award, he whispers to himself, “We did it, mom.” We are then never given any additional backstory when it comes to Matt’s relationship with his mother.

Viewers are given additional hints that Hagan had a rough upbringing in Gotham’s seedier sections, but these hints are few and far between. The first half of the movie feels a lot like it’s going through the motions to go from point A to point B to point Clayface. Luckily, it’s at around the halfway point that the movie finds its footing and truly takes off.

The Pros of Clayface

The second half of Clayface feels like a totally different movie in ways that benefit the entire experience, which was surprising to me, as it feels like the two sides of Two-Face’s legendary coin. I absolutely fell in love with the final forty minutes of the movie, wondering why it couldn’t have held this pace and tone throughout the first half. The very final sequence of the film is so perfect for the villain’s character and paints an exciting picture of what is to come. If you are looking to build up a Batman villain, Clayface certainly does that and more.

Clayface ultimately does have its faults, but it’s also surprising in ways that we didn’t see coming. It’s a movie we couldn’t see being made by the Marvel Cinematic Universe machine, and in that, it feels like a success for Gunn and DC. It has its problems, but this latest DC film still has its strengths that might make it worthy of a trip to the movies.