Clayface review

I really enjoyed Clayface. He's one of those second-tier Gotham villains who has always had a more interesting backstory than you might expect, and I thought this was a great way to tell it.

The film follows an actor whose life and career are destroyed after gangsters brutally mutilate his face. Desperate to get his looks back, he becomes a test subject for an experimental nanotechnology procedure. It works, at least initially. But when things go wrong, he develops abilities he can't fully control, and eventually becomes the Clayface we know from the comics.

What makes this work is that it's a tragedy. You understand how he got here. He's lost his face, his livelihood, and much of what made his life worth living. And when he starts going after the people who did this to him, you find yourself cheering him on, at least a little. These are terrible people, and you're not especially sorry to see them get what's coming to them.

But there's a distinction between understanding what he's doing and justifying it. He's murdering people. They didn't kill him, and he's not seeking anything resembling fair justice. He's taking revenge, and however understandable his anger might be, there's no real moral or legal justification for his behavior.

I like that the film never completely turns him into someone you're rooting against. Even when he's doing terrible things, he's still sympathetic. You can imagine him recovering from all of this and becoming a better person. That fits the comic-book character, who has sometimes worked with the heroes and sometimes been a straightforward villain. He's a bad guy, but there's more to him than that.

I thought the lead performance was excellent, particularly in showing how the character moves from desperation to violence without suddenly becoming a completely different person. And the nanotechnology explanation works well enough. When you're trying to explain a character like Clayface, your alternatives are basically magic or genetic manipulation. Nanotech makes the impossible just plausible enough to carry the story.

I was on the fence between three and a half and four stars. For me, four stars means a really good movie that everyone should make an effort to see. Three and a half means a pretty good movie that I recommend, but one you don't necessarily need to rush out to the theater for. Ultimately, I land at four stars here. I had a lot of fun with Clayface, and I'd definitely recommend it. But if you wait to catch it on streaming, that's fine too.