Clayface Review: Wasted Potential — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:00] and in this video, we're breaking down Clayface. The next chapter in the DCU saga is now here,  and this is leading into the latter part of  

[00:14] Gods and Monsters. In this movie, we follow  Matt Hagen, who goes on a twisted tale of   revenge after being cut up by mobsters. In this  video, we're going to be going through the movie,   discussing some of the Easter eggs, and also  talking about what I liked and what I didn't.  

[00:27] I have some pretty mixed feelings on the film,  um and kind of want to explain my positives and   negatives. And it's going to be hard, mate, cuz  I've I put a tweet out the other day, and people   did not react well to it. Woo, but we'll see how  it goes. Can we have some nuance, please? Can we  

[00:43] [ __ ] But, we join Matt Hagen, who's a big star  in Coast City. This is the home of Hal Jordan,   and it got mentioned in Latin, so it's a nice  little lead-in to start here. As we see, Matt is   currently up for Oscar nominations, and it seems  like he's having the time of his life. Amongst  

[00:56] the films he's competing with are One Bad Day and  also No Man's Land, which, if you're a fan of DC,   you'll know are based on Batman graphic novels.  The story for this film focuses around the ideas   brought up in the former, in which person just  needs to have one bad day to become the Joker.  

[01:12] Torres. Now, from the off, Tom Rhys Harries, who  plays Hagen, is the person that really carries the   picture. The guy is phenomenal throughout, and he  really excels beyond the material. He just bounces  

[01:25] about perfectly when it comes to tone, and goes  from being a sympathetic man who's at the end of   his rope to a lovable, affable guy, to someone  with all the power in the world who's ready to   use it and be corrupted by it. I definitely think  he's got a bright future ahead of him, and he's  

[01:38] by far the best bit of the movie. Which, yeah,  where did you leave? Obviously, you need to be.   Unfortunately, where I felt the movie fell flat  was in most of the side characters, especially   the mobsters. The Batman and Penguin showed what  you can do with these complex characters that just  

[01:51] ooze evil in a really subtle way. On the flip side  of this, these guys really feel like a step down,   and are pretty much just a Batman away from being  like, "It's the freaking bat." Actually like David   Dencik too, who plays the main guy, and I think  he's great in like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,  

[02:07] he really sells himself as a mobster, but the  dialogue to me was just kind of Sony level. So   far, as good as he is, he's still only playing  to that level of writing. What we have here  

[02:20] though is a Sabo crime family whose leader just  happens to be the boyfriend of Mia. Matt brushes   this off at the club in all his arrogance, and  the bosses come to leave him with a mark that   he won't ever forget. Right from the off though,  like I said, this felt like Sony level dialogue,  

[02:33] and he even admits to killing Matt's dad when he  was younger. It's just really, really cartoonish,   and the worst thing is, it didn't even need to be  in the film. Matt doesn't ever set out to avenge   his dad, and never really brings up the fact that  he killed his dad again. But he was in Gotham  

[02:47] researching bats when he died, and he did it.  Yeah, just really dropped the ball with that, I   think. But he cuts his face up, and Matt recovers  as a broken shell of the man he once was. To make   things worse, due to the corruption in Gotham,  Matt's unable to really do anything to right the  

[03:00] wrongs. He's beaten in court, and lies are spread  about him because Sabo buys off the witnesses,   and has Matt's pals and partners in his pocket.  I think the police force and corruption is just   another way the film really stumbles, and there  just isn't really that much depth to the corrupt  

[03:14] officers. Again, not to bring up The Batman, but  there we really see what the crooked cops are like   beyond just the surface, and how they manipulate  the system and all those around them. Here, it's   just like, "Hey, that's a nice watch." And the the  cop is obviously corrupt. Even with that, he shows  

[03:28] up down the line from time to time, but just gets  dropped, and doesn't come back into the picture at   all after a certain point around the hour mark.  So it's just constantly dropping the ball with   stuff. There's also characters like Matt's agent  who he has an argue with at a premiere, but she's  

[03:42] neither in the film before or after. So it's like,  "Why even include this character when it doesn't   really add anything?" Beyond that, there's a  cameo by Aaron Paul as Matt's dad, but he's   only in for like a split-second shot, and that's  all we get. Now, because of that, I couldn't help  

[03:56] but think there was probably a flashback scene on  the cutting room floor somewhere where Paul got   to really portray his father. They touch upon  how he was abusive and made Matt's life hell,   but I think it could have been a great case of  show, don't tell. But, I'm not a rapper. Looking  

[04:09] at the IMDb cast list as well, we know that  Seth Isaac Tammic played a young Matt Hagen,   and he isn't in the movie. So, yeah, there was  definitely some stuff cut from the film. Anyway,   Begins. Since then, it's become a staple of Gotham  and is basically the worst of the worst of the  

[04:26] worst, sir, with honors. So, here that Matt comes  across a radical new nanotechnology treatment that   potentially has the ability to heal him. Led up by  Naomi Akiyama's Dr. Caitlin, she's someone who's   been shunned from the science world where her  partner's also taking her work and leaving her  

[04:40] in the dirt. Makes a nice parallel to Matt, and I  think Akiyama's really, really strong in the film,   too. I have seen some reviews that talk about how  the love plot felt a bit forced, but honestly,   I can think it added to the movie. I think it's  important for Matt to stop focusing on his career  

[04:53] and look to attach to something in his personal  life, and having him falling in love with her,   it makes the movie feel, yeah, more personal. It  creates a love triangle where she's stuck between   her patient, Matt, and her fiance, John, who's  one of the only good cops in Gotham. We learn that  

[05:07] Caitlin's brother died from Huntington's disease,  which in the comics is what Mr. Freeze's wife,   which is another DC classic, but that was a change  to McGregor's syndrome, and yeah, Alfred suffers  

[05:20] from it. In this film, though, is unable to do  human trials, but Matt puts himself forward and   signs away everything to have himself worked on.  Now, there's still a hell of a lot to talk about,   and we all going to get into the rest of the film  after a quick word about our sponsors. So, it  

[05:32] turns out your liver is working overtime, even if  you barely touch alcohol. Between everyday meals,   the odd sugary drink, processed foods, stress,  and all the natural waste your body produces,   it rarely gets a real break. It's constantly  on the job, but that's where Dose for Your  

[05:48] Liver comes in. It's a simple daily shot that  tastes like orange juice, and it's designed to   give your liver some proper backup. Clinically  backed, it helps support normal liver function,   healthy enzyme levels, and your body's natural  detox and metabolic processes. So, your liver  

[06:02] can do what it's meant to do without feeling  quite so overloaded. It's not another pill,   either, or powder to choke down on. It's a gentle,  plant-powered liquid with zero sugar. People have   said they notice a difference in how they feel  day-to-day, and the results often show up in their  

[06:15] bloodwork, too. When you take it regularly,  as well, a lot of people find they feel less   sluggish, deal with less bloating, and bounce back  more easily after heavier meals. It also supports   your metabolism and helps your body turn food into  energy more efficiently. So, you can feel a bit  

[06:29] more like yourself again. Simple, straightforward  support that actually fits into your life. So,   are you ready to give your liver the support it  deserves? Head to dosedaily.co/heavyspoilers,   or enter heavyspoilers to get 35%off your first  subscription. Your body does so much for you.  

[06:46] Let's do something for it. That's d o s e d a  i l y dot c o slash heavyspoilers for 35%off   your first month's subscription. Try it for  3 months now and see how you feel. And yeah,  

[06:59] go check out that link in the description.  Thanks. Anyway, after the trials continue,   Matt's face is fixed up, and it seems like  everything is coming up Milhouse. However,   his face starts to melt from time to time, and  as he gets addicted to the nanotech and keeping  

[07:12] things in check. The changes are brought on by him  spiraling emotionally, and we get a really great   scene on an airplane. I was really tensing up when  he was cutting through his eyelids, and that and   the later club scene are like the two standout  parts of the movie for me. Now, he realizes that  

[07:26] Caitlyn grounds him, and emotionally, she becomes  his anchor. His face gets worse and worse, though,   and he ends up going overboard and injects  the entire substance into his face. Now,   this is where his abilities are really taken in  the next step, and his skin and blood cells have  

[07:39] given him healing abilities. Anything cut off or  removed will make its way back to him in order   to retain his full form. Beyond this, he's also  able to change how he looks. He ends up going on   a hunt for revenge against those that wronged him  and he uses his shapeshifting abilities to appear  

[07:52] like them and fool witnesses. This is the real  heart of the movie and we watch him move through   those that wronged him while John follows the  case. We get some obvious nods to The Godfather. I knew it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. You  broke my heart. I think the scene with his best  

[08:11] friend who betrayed him is a really great moment  where Tom just gets to play up how heartbroken   this guy feels. He even plays as him just to  go and taunt Mia who's working as an actress   in the film. It's stuff like this where I think  the movie soars, but actually don't think it goes  

[08:24] far enough. It's labeled as being a DC horror  movie, but I actually think it's more along the   lines of Venom with an R rating. Like if you said  Joker was a horror movie, it's kind of along the   same lines as that. There are some creative kills  though and they do a lot with the body horror,  

[08:39] but they don't quite push things to the level  that I would really look back on this in many   Halloweens to come and be like, "Ooh, let's put  on Clayface tonight, the classic horror." This   revenge plot I did feel was satisfying though  and after Zabo sends his goons to get Caitlyn,  

[08:52] Matt takes one of their forms and infiltrates  the nightclub where he first met Mia. There's   some really good moments during this and the quick  cuts as they swap out actors as Matt changes shape   is completely seamless. I'd love to watch some  of these moments in slow motion to see if I can  

[09:05] spot where they stitched together, but you really  have the actors all remaining in the exact place,   so it's so difficult to tell. I will say as well  the movie has some great effects and considering   it's got a really small budget, they do make the  most of it. Well, outside of how Clayface looks,  

[09:20] this including a big fat smiley face drawn on  the window and Hagen's shadow beating Zabo's   henchmen with a giant spiked hand. Eventually  he gets to the mob boss and after killing Mia,   he cuts his face into the same scars that the  boss originally gave him. He bleeds into Zabo's  

[09:35] face and then the particles pull themselves back  together through his pores and orifices, which is   a really solid death and I think it makes the most  of the concept. But, things aren't over and the   investigation starts closing in on Matt. After  professing his love to Caitlin and it clearly  

[09:49] being him behind the crimes, John confronts him  at his apartment. Matt denies everything and we   then join Caitlin returning home having gone over  all the files on Matt. She confesses the truth to   her fiance who then reveals himself to be Matt in  disguise as she discovers her fiance's body. It  

[10:03] feels very akin to the fly and considering the  movie so much from it, I was actually thinking   this might be where they take the final showdown.  Caitlin shocks Matt by using a taser though and he   begs for death as she activates the kill switch  which fries all the nano machines in his body.  

[10:17] This sends him to a seemingly watery grave  in the sewers, but as we know with Clayface,   a guy's made out of clay, it's very hard to kill.  Now, I do think the final look of Clayface is   going to be something that a lot of people go  back and forth on. He's a big blob glob man,  

[10:29] which technically is what Clayface is, but they  also try and keep his human face in there too, so   they can have Tom's performance come through. Now,  I'm going to say I totally understand that and I   think they probably created countless versions of  his final look where some would have been closer  

[10:44] to the classic look from the comics whereas others  would have been more human in appearance. Like a   a man made out of mud. I think this is probably  the middle ground they settled on, but because of   that, feels a bit, I don't know, muddled for for  lack of a better word. That wasn't terrible for  

[10:59] me and I understand why they ended up here, but I  know it's going to be a big point of contention.   Surf Dracula has become a big talking point in  the wake of Lantus and in case you don't know,   it's basically built off a tweet about how back  in the day, if you had a show called Surf Dracula,  

[11:13] then every single week you'd see Dracula surfing.  These days though, you need to have things teased   out for ages and ages until like the final scene  finally has Dracula picking up the surfboard. It's   a criticism that was levied heavily against  Lantus. However, I do understand why they did  

[11:27] it there and here. But, Haegan is now seemingly  gone and we see Caitlin trying to get back to her   regular life. Added to the fact that Matt can look  like anyone, she constantly finds herself looking   around seeing people in the crowd and wondering  if it's him. She's approached by a homeless man  

[11:41] who she gives some change, and we then follow him  back to the sewers. Staring in a mirror, we see as   he changes into Matt, and we find that he's joined  by Caitlyn who's come to spend her life with him.   then pull out to see that Caitlyn is merely just  a part of Matt, and he's performing it as part of  

[11:58] a fantasy. It plays upon him morphing into her  earlier in the movie when he was asleep, and it   looked like he was getting it on with her in the  bed. Ultimately, he's trapped in a well of misery   though, fantasizing about a life he'll never have.  Matt brought up in the film how he acts because  

[12:11] it's easier than being him, and putting on someone  else's face has allowed him to dissociate from   himself. He's now stuck in this fantasy, unable  to accept who he really is, and living beneath the   streets of Gotham waiting to make his move. Now,  there wasn't any post-credit scene at the showing  

[12:26] I was at, and I saw this at a Cineworld secret  screening, which is pretty much always the wide   release version of a movie. But, I've seen stuff  in the past where they haven't shown a post-credit   scene at things, and people have come out with  reviews talking about how there wasn't one there,  

[12:39] and then it turned out there was, and then people  are like, "What the hell? Why did they send me to   review this when it's not even got the post-credit  scene?" So, if there was a post-credit scene,   then please drop it in the comments below, cuz  that's what they're there for. Did Clayface come  

[12:51] out and say, "It's Clayfacing time?" Let me know  in the comments below. But, we do know that this   version of the character continues on to feature  in Creature Commandos. There he was seemingly   killed, but James Gunn clarified that the reports  of Clayface's death have been greatly exaggerated.  

[13:05] He's of course made of mushy mushy clay nanotech  stuff, and can separate and come together,   so even beyond Creature Commandos, the character  likely survives. Whether they do more with him,   we're going to have to see, but I'm not sure if  I'm dying to see a sequel to this stuff. Now,  

[13:19] that kind of takes me to the review, and I did  walk away from it with pretty mixed feelings,   and there was a lot that I think if they tweaked,  it could have taken this to something that was   really, really good. Great, you would say, but  it just doesn't hit that height. Now, if you've  

[13:33] been watching the channel for a while, you'll  know I'm a massive fan of Mike Flanagan, so I   was really excited when I heard he was penning the  script. However, he has kind of distanced himself   from the project and said they took his script  and have changed some stuff and that he's not  

[13:45] really sure where things have gone. I think you  can definitely feel that, too, and there's a lot   of things that don't really get developed here and  even the Rob Brydon chat show at the start, that   feels like it's setting some big things up like  the ending of Joker, but it's just left by the  

[13:58] wayside. Comparing it to that film, you really see  where a supervillain origin story succeeds where   this fails. There, the chat show teased to us at  the start as part of Joker's fantasy and that's   when he goes on it and it goes horribly wrong, it  sends him spiraling to the point of murder. Here,  

[14:12] the chat show happens for real at first and  then it's a fantasy that appears later on and   ends up not really going anywhere. I think the  supporting characters really let the film down,   too. Watching this made me realize just how  important Penny and Tommy Swayne were to Joker and  

[14:26] there's nothing here that's performed or written  to the same level that that was, so it doesn't   really help build up the surrounding elements  of the film. So, for as good as the leads are,   the rest of the material just lets stuff down. I  think if you're just a casual, you'd probably have  

[14:40] a better time just going back and watching The  Fly because it does everything that Clayface does,   but on a much better level. So, I am mixed and I  also have to view this in terms of being the third   film in the DCEU. So far, I thought Superman was  okay, I didn't really enjoy Supergirl and I think  

[14:55] this is okay, too. Probably my my favorite of the  three, but there's nothing here that I think is   going to change the genre in the same way that  several of the DC films have. There's a reason   that Christopher Nolan has gone on to be like the  biggest director in Hollywood and yeah, it's kind  

[15:09] of insane to me that we were getting like that  level of a DC movie 15 years ago and this is the   level where they're putting stuff out now at. So  yeah, maybe I'm too old and cynical, but I can't   really see this being a film that people look  back on as one of those milestones, which yeah,  

[15:23] the DC really needs to be doing to even be close  to competing with Marvel. They needed a home run   at this point. Marvel is probably going to  do two two billion dollar movies this year,   and after Supergirl bombed as badly as it did, I  think DC Studios need some big wins, especially in  

[15:38] the wake of the Paramount major. And I'm not  sure this is going to be it. Now look, mate,   I'm trying to be as balanced as possible, and I  know without fail that I'm going to get [ __ ] for   this. It's even at the point that after I posted  my reaction on Twitter, I like DC accounts saying  

[15:51] I made a racist review about Lanterns episode  three, and the guy said I criticized it for   being race bait. Meanwhile, in reality, if you go  and watch the video, I said it was one of the best   hours in all of the DCU and didn't bring up any  race baiting at all. It's kind of wild as well,  

[16:06] cuz like last week I was seeing all the backlash  to Lanterns, and I started being like, "Hmm,   did they They had a point on some stuff, to be  fair." Like Sheriff Carrie faced no consequences,   but it's worse to live in the guilt than go  to prison. Hmm, is it though? Maybe maybe the  

[16:20] criticism was right there. Maybe she should have  gone to jail. John stole the ring off a corpse   and has an unsanctioned Lantern that is made with  fear. Hmm, yeah, maybe maybe you guys are right.   Maybe this Maybe this is not good. So yeah, I've  been thinking people are going to think I'm an  

[16:33] idiot for giving Lantern positive reviews, but  instead people have made up that I hated it just   to say I'm racist. And hey, the DC fandom comes at  you fast in ways you don't expect. I hear you're   a racist now, father. I had one guy who even went  back through all my old tweets to find one where  

[16:48] I said the Rebel Moon trailer uh looked like Zack  Snyder had a baby with Zack Snyder, and the baby   came out and was Zack Snyder who made a movie  called Zack Snyder. And it's like, "Ah, mate, you   you you thought the trailer for Rebel Moon looked  good, did you? Opinion null and void, I'm afraid."  

[17:03] So yeah, the discourse is kind of tiring, and I,  I, I, I need you guys to understand, yeah, that   it is actually the worst confirmation bias and  cult-like mentalities you can have to attach your   personality to a brand, decide that everything is  going to be good even without seeing it, and then  

[17:16] go and accuse people of being biased because they  didn't like it, even though you are the biased one   in this situation. It's another level of stupid  uh that I just can't stoop to. So, please keep all   your comments civil, please. But I think when you  hit a point where people aren't even arguing with  

[17:29] your opinion, they're arguing with the perception  of your opinion and like how you're a shill, and   how you got paid by Marvel, or you got paid by DC  to to say or write something negative or positive   and they're coming up with ways that it can't be  genuine rather than actually engaging with it. Um  

[17:43] it just makes me think like Is this the point that  we've hit with stuff? Now, I know I'm it's a very   small group of people who do that. Um I know most  of my audience is more mature than this, and I'm   totally open to hearing you guys'opinion on the  film, as long as it's civil, and we can talk  

[17:57] about the movie in a way that isn't just shouting  shill or hater at each other. Cuz yeah, it's just   impossible to talk about this stuff. But, overall,  to me, Clayface was okay, but I think this needed   to be a great film. That definitely had the  potential to exceed to that level. However,  

[18:12] there were just some things that really held  it back from hitting it. I wanted this film   to show what the DC monster side of Chapter One  was going to do, but unfortunately, if the rest   of it is along these lines, I think we're going to  end up with like a slightly better Sony Spider-Man  

[18:25] less Spider-Man villain set of movies, and I'm not  sure how that's going to play in terms of getting   the ball back from Marvel. When watching it, I  remembered how Feige's process is to basically   have them make the movie, show it to him, and then  he comes back with notes, and then they go back  

[18:37] and fix all the stuff. Made me realize he must be  some like visionary genius because they definitely   haven't had that level of audience awareness  in these projects. Even picking stuff like   um the Gorilla Grodd thing that's coming up,  it's like uh Is that the right choice? So, yeah,  

[18:52] let me know your thoughts below. I'd love to hear  them. Um it's just yeah, it's just another one of   those films. I actually because I didn't like the  last two ones, I was actually more on board for   liking this. I'm like, "Well, I can't hate three  films in a row." And no, I thought it was okay.  

[19:06] Uh yeah, just left a lot to be desired, I think.  Do you agree? Do you not? More than happy to hear   all your thoughts below. If you want to follow  us on Instagram as well and keep up to date with  

[19:19] members of the channel get early access to videos  like this every single week and if you click the   join button, you get at least one big breakdown  a week a week before anyone else. Costs just 99  

[19:31] a lot to us. If not though, huge thank you for  sitting through the video. Sorry for the big run   there. You know I love you really. I know you're  not like that, mate. You're a you're a bloody good   the way, I've been your host Paul. You've been the  best. I'll see you next time. Take care. Peace.