Darkman III: Die Darkman Die
Dir: Bradford May
1996
*
I didn't think it could get any worse than Darkman II but I was wrong. For a Doctor, he's isn't very clever, just get a skin graft dude! The bad guys are pretty bad here, 1996 was pretty late in the day for the big-suited, shoulder-padded pony-tailed villain, no? Again, Bradford May relies on old stock footage from the first film and decides to shoot before actually writing a script. It's terribly dull and a shadow of the original.

Darkman II: The Return of Durant
Dir: Bradford May
1995
*
I really wanted to like the sequel as I loved the original but I can't kid myself, this was bloody awful. There isn't even the slightest hint of what made the original great here. Bradford May's direction is shoddy, he tried to imitate Sam Rami's style of film making but was too lazy to see it through and just used a 7 second 'rage montage' recapping the anger felt by Darkman from footage from the original film. Rubbish and pointless. Why doesn't Darkman just get a skin graft? They did have skin grafts in 1995. Huge waste of time and money.

Darkman
Dir: Sam Raimi
1990
*****
Probably my favorite 'alternative' superhero movie. It's Sam Raimi back when he was allowed to do his own thing, Batman mixed with The Phantom of the Opera in a noir comic book style. A cult classic and I love it. Like Evil Dead and Crimewave, Raimi does horror/thriller/action with a brilliant undercurrent of humour like no other director. It's cheesy and it's fun, not really what you expect from a horror/thriller but it's thoroughly entertaining and saddens me that films like this aren't made anymore. I'd watch this over Spiderman any day of the week! My only gripe is that there was not enough of Bruce Campbell!