Superhero movies, in particular Marvel, have become the highest-grossing movies of all time along with becoming ingrained in the minds of millions of people worldwide. However, that wasn't always the case, as superhero movies were seen as just kids' stuff, not to be taken seriously, and were often a box office bomb from the word go.
While there were success stories such as Blade, X-Men, and Raimi's Spider-Man, there were just as many bombs like 2003's Daredevil, and one of the most infamous was the Howard the Duck film. One film that has gone and continues to go under the radar of most fans was the mid-2000s TV movie based on an incredibly obscure Marvel character, Man-Thing. Come with us and see why the Man-Thing movie has been forgotten by the wider public, and possibly for good reason.
1. Who is Man-Thing?
I've already made an article discussing Man-Thing's origins, but to I'll give a brief explanation.
Man-Thing made his first appearance in Savage Tales issue 1 in 1971, and was created by Stan Lee, Gerry Conway, Roy Thomas, and artist Gray Morrow. Ted Sallis was a scientist working on a version of the famed super-soldier serum that created Captain America while hiding in the Florida Everglades. He was ambushed by members of A.I.M. who wanted the formula for their own ends, but Sallis managed to elude their grasp, at least momentarily.
After finding no other alternative, Sallis injected himself with the untested serum, but the car he was driving in careened off the road, where the formula combined with mystical elements in the swamp which resulted in the creation of Man-Thing!
2. Who made the Man Thing movie?
The movie was directed by Brett Leonard and written by Hans Rodionoff, and it was released as a TV movie on the SyFy network on April 21, 2005. Most of the cast was made up of new faces, but one face Jessica Jones fans would recognize is Rachael Taylor, who played Patsy Walker in that Marvel Netflix series (her character in Man-Thing movie is in no way connected to the Patsy character.)
As an extra fun fact, one of the executive producers of this movie was none other than Kevin Feige, who's now the head honcho of the MCU and basically all things Marvel.
3. The Troubling Production
During an interview with the director of the Man-Thing film, ComicBook.com explained that his movie and Ang Lee's Hulk film were being made around the same time as each other, with the latter coming out before the Man-Thing film. That would prove to be a hurtle to the Man-Thing production, because Lee's film wasn't received well either critically or financially, and the higher ups at Marvel were nervous that the early drafts for the Man-Thing script were too similar to Lee's Hulk, particularly with the father son dynamics found in that film.
The filmmakers received a fax with a revised script for their Man-Thing film that was completely different from the original script. "It was totally different in all honesty", said Man-Thing director Brett Leonard. " It was just, I think, a reaction to the surprise of the Hulk not really working commercially and critically as much as they wanted it to. And they had Ang Lee, who is an Academy Award-winning director, who some thought was a strange match for that material.”
With a different script in tow, the production of Man-Thing had another hurdle to tangle with: a very low budget. The filmmakers initially thought that they were going to get a higher budget for the production, but they were only given $5 million. Nowadays, most big budget superhero movies are made with budgets in the hundreds of millions, and even the Blade film was made with much more than what they were given. “It was a very, very, very independent film done with an independent film company, that then Lionsgate was part of it.
Then, it was at a time when the Marvel thing was not as codified as it is now. That’s for sure. We were waiting for the money to hit to make the movie. It was very much like an independent film. It was not like a studio film. Marvel Studios was just beginning at that time as a concept,” the filmmaker adds. “And so this was, again, it was in this bridging moment, between the way in which Marvel films were made and how they’re made now.”
The filming of Man-Thing, especially when the titular character was on set, also proved to be a very difficult task. According to Nick Nicolau, head of production on set and designer of the function of the Man-Thing suit, from an interview with Monster Legacy, shooting the film was very difficult. "Shooting the scenes with the Man-Thing monster was difficult. Again, I think it came down to budget and then reducing the schedule.
The production never had enough time to shoot the creature properly. It was nearly always brought in at the end of each of the filming days and rushed through the shoot. They were running out of time and it was logistically difficult to get the Man-Thing on set, into the man-made swamp built on the stage, up on the platform risers running just under the water line and then block in all the action. Our team did a great job and I am proud of the results.
So, with all that said, what's the movie about and does it hold up?
The story follows a young sheriff, Kyle Williams, who is tasked with investigating the disappearances of many citizens in the town of Bywater. Williams soon realizes that many of the disappearances began when Fred Schist, an oil tycoon, bought ancient tribal lands from the Seminole chieftain, named Ted Sallis, who was the first to disappear. The recovered bodies were mangled to the point where plants and other matter were growing out of them, adding to the overall mystery of the case. Many members of the town began to protest Schist's drilling of the sacred lands, with Kyle ordered to quell the protest since it was, by all intents and purposes legal.
Kyle befriends one of the protesters named Teri Richards, a school teacher with a mission to uncover the secrets that Schist is hiding and take him down. Over the course of the investigation, more bizarre and gruesome murders were committed, while Kyle and Terri learn from Terri's father figure, shaman Pete Horn, of a guardian spirit of the swamp, with photographer Mike Ploog having photographic proof of said creature, making it seem like the creature is not only real, but possibly behind the murders/disappearances.
Finally, after many deaths and setbacks, Kyle and Terri learn that Schist was behind the disappearance of Ted Sallis, in that he murdered him in order to gain access to the tribal lands for his own greed. Schist also murdered others who got too close to the truth, such as Mike Ploog, leading to a showdown between Kyle and Terri and Schist in Dark Water. During the climax, Pete Horn tries to use shaman magic to stop the guardian from killing more people, but is killed by said creature. Kyle, Terri, and Schist exchange gunplay, but are interrupted by the appearance of Man-Thing, who brutally kills Schist.
With the aid of one of the protestors, Kyle and Terri manage to blow up the oil rig set up in Dark Water, which, according to Pete Horn, would stop Man-Thing from killing more people. With the rig destroyed and the Man-Thing gone, Kyle and Terri leave the swamps no longer as friends, but lovers.
So, after all that, how does the movie hold up?
Whenever Man-Thing appears in the movie, it's a blast, and the carcasses he left behind were very creative and gross to look at. Unfortunately, the titular character is only in the movie for a few minutes, with most of the run time he kills without the audience seeing him until the climax. As for the movie as a whole, I'm sorry to report that it's just not that compelling. The characters are very paint-by-numbers, it takes itself too seriously at times, the acting from most of them is decent to just bad, and the color palette is just brown and dark green, making it an ugly-looking film. Aside from the titular character's very brief but impactful appearances, I see no reason why anyone should watch this movie. It's not one of those movies that's so bad it's good, it's just bad, and it's a real shame too, because the early ideas and concepts for the film were really.
Hopefully, after Man-Thing's appearance in the Werewolf by Night special, audiences will be able to see more of this obscure character, perhaps being a part of an ensemble of other Marvel characters in the future, but a solo movie doesn't seem likely to me.