For those of you who do not know The Shadow is a character first created in the 1930s that is debateably considered the first superhero ever. He was a masked crime fighter with a pair of revolvers and psychic abilities who existed in pulp novels and radio shows (read by none other then Orson Welles) with the occasional appearance in old serials and more recently in revival comics from Dynamite and the lot.
A Shadow movie exists. It came out in 1994 and was directed by Russel Mulcahy (the director of Highlander). Alec Baldwin played the titular role, John Lone played the antagonist Shiwan Khan with Ian Mckellen and Tim Curry in supporting roles.
I love the movie; it combines elements of the novels and the radio shows to create a movie that celebrates the shadow as a whole, it's well scored, well acted, well shot (there are quite a few shots in the movie that make you go 'Oh yeah. This is the Highlander director'), decent action, humour, a well written romantic lead, the period setting gives it a classy edge, the antagonistic relationship between Shiwan Khan and The Shadow is great and feels a little bit like Highlander or Scanners in that it deals with a group of beings who have to exist in secret alongside humanity despite having the power to destroy them. The movie also nails how menacing the shadow is without making him to much of an anti-hero. This film is one of my all-time favourite superhero movies.
All that being said why does no one like this movie?
The film underperformed at the box office and to this day the general consensus is neutral to negative, the movie ranks 6.0 on IMDB and only has a 35% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film does have a cult following but they seem few and far between and I rarely run into them. I can understand why people don't like 'The Phantom' (even though I do) but the general attitude to this movie confuses me.
Do you like the film? If you do why? If you don't then why not? I'm really curious.