Day 295 of the challenge! What if Sam Raimi had directed Batman? Pretty sure you’d end up with something close to what Darkman is!
Right off the bat, I was thrown through a loop by how similar Darkman was to Tim Burton’s Batman. Visually, I feel I could splice in some Darkman into Batman (or vice versa) and a casual viewer would be none the wiser. Danny Elfman’s score (which sounds like leftovers from Batman) didn’t help that feeling much either. Based on the release dates of both films, I’d say it’s a fair bet there was some overlap on his part as far as the actual writing of the two scores goes.
Batman comparisons aside, Darkman is such a bizarro fun watch. Had no idea Liam Neeson and Frances McDormand were in this, so seeing their names pop up in the credits was another loop, albeit a much more enthusiastic one. There’s also something so inherently magical about watching Liam Neeson do his best Bruce Campbell impersonation, but a Bruce Campbell that’s playing what’s basically a superhero version of The Phantom of the Opera. Does that makes sense? I feel it makes as much sense as anything else in this movie.