Clayface

Quick as a flash (pun intended) DC have flipped back on the flop and produced an excellent superhero film in Clayface.

This nascent DCU is a lot of things. Questionable, interesting, odd, confusing and, perhaps most egregiously, not quite at this stage linked up or really showing any signs of linking up.

How Clayface could possibly coexist with Peacemaker is not the focus here though. Let’s instead just revel in what a delight and oddity this film is.

To introduce Gotham (Lanterns’ nod to the city aside) with an origin story of a mid-tier Batman villain is bold in itself.

To do so with a Joker-esque, hard R-rated body horror with nary a mention of any sort of Caped Crusader is positively psychotic in this studio-driven age of supposed superhero fatigue.

So, yeah, Superman this very much ain’t.

As Gotham up-and-coming actor Matt Hagen gets his face slashed by a mobster within the first throes of the film, and Hagen subsequently begs Dr Caitlin Bates to use her nanotechnology to restore his features, the plot and trajectory of the film and his arc is fairly predictable.

But, like the aforementioned Joker, this is not the universe-travelling superhero film and, instead, the character study of how a villain is born.

As Hagen seeks revenge and discovers the side-effects of his treatment we’re pulled through some traumatic, shocking and disturbing set pieces with the body horror often unflinching.

It might be as far as any superhero film has gone before in terms of wince-inducing moments (a standout sequence involving a plane flying through turbulence, a closed eyelid and some nail scissors will have you watching through your fingers) and it's not one for those with any sort of gore aversion.

This will sure be an interesting antagonist for a future film and it is a real shame that this isn’t linked with Joker or The Batman and The Penguin universe as it does feel of a piece.

Gotham here feels appropriately dark and lived in and the influence of Batman: The Animated Series is felt.

The filmmaking and the daring behind the premise and the execution here deserves huge credit especially when compared to Sony’s films in the ‘SPUMC’ universe (Venom et al) and just what a risk this must have felt like to the higher ups at DC.

What happens now is anyone’s guess and Clayface isn’t quite top-tier superhero fare or, arguably, wildly memorable but it is striking, bold, daring, wince-inducing and a masterful villain origin story.

It's a stall-setting film for this new universe and a clear direction to follow, alongside the very 'adult-feeling' detective-esque drama of Lanterns, should DC wish to.

Something like this for all of Batman’s rogues gallery would make for a bloody brilliant collection of films. Let’s see a Mr Freeze, a Poison Ivy, a Scarecrow or a Two-Face James Gunn.

As unlikely as that seems though, the faith in what they're doing is definitely back.

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