Review: Lazarus

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2021
Images from the Internet

Lazarus
Directed by R.L. Scott
Wonder Studios; Overdog Entertainment;
Phoenix Rising Films; Samuel Goldwyn Films
105 minutes, 2021
www.facebook.com/WhoIsLazarus/

Comic book movies are not always based on the standard comic characters. It is a tone, a stylistic choice by the production, that make it a modern comic book film. Don’t get me wrong, there actually is a comic by the Lazarus name, but it is totally not connected to this release, but rather is a sci-fi action coming of age story about a woman.

For this film, the aptly named titular Ray Lazarus (Sean Riggs) is an African-American man who is killed, then comes back to life thanks to a mysterious being called Hellfire (Shane Brolly, who was Kraven in the Underworld franchise), whose powers include strength, the ability to absorb the life force and knowledge of those he whomps, and he cannot be killed; he wears a costume to weed the city of criminals. Wait a minute, didn’t I see that in the comic Spawn? I own the original comic run (first editions), but yeah, the film version (1997) was a bit over the top, while this has more of a The Punisher vibe.

Sean Riggs

The events take place in the sarcastically named Paradise City (I’m pretty sure I saw a low-angle shot of the Empire State Building, but why not?).

The main villain is violent drug kingpin Testament (Adamo Palladino) who had Lazarus killed in the first place. He is yet another one of a legion of Biblically referenced names such as Chapel and, as the Ying to Hellborn’s Yang, there is Epiphany. Why Hellborn is so – err – fired up on Lazarus taking Testament off the streets makes no sense to me, as I would think he would be in favor of “sin.” But there is more afoot as Epiphany (Lyndsey Lantz) is busy working on an equally powerful evil version of Lazarus, because opposites attack. Hey, every superhero film needs an equal match-up for its final act, right? This isn’t meant to be critical, just realistic to the genre. Just think Thanos or Hela (Ragnarok).

Somehow, Super-Lazarus manages to get a small army together (why, if he is that increasingly powerful and can’t die?) to take on mid-level distributor Poet (Damien T. Raven) and his superior, Testament. Meanwhile, a police detective, Benjamin Poge (Costas Mandylor, who played Mark Hoffman in a few Saw films), who drives a car no real city police officer, even of a higher rank, could ever afford, is inquiring into the high body count. Then there is an assassin from Testament, the amusingly named Endless (Kevin Lukata).

There are essentially five women in minor roles here: first is attractive Nina (Nicki Micheaux) as a drug distributor who is instantly the obvious possible love interest for Lazarus, depending on her questionable loyalties, Testament’s cancer-ridden sister, Priscilla (Christina Wren, that played Carrie Farris in the DC Universe), who is on her deathbed, a tarot card reader who works for Testament, Flora (a cameo by pop singer Mya) who is a psychic/Tarot card reader, the sister of one of Lazarus’s friends, Pogo (Linc Hand) named Winter (cute Kayla Vosburg), and the aforementioned Epiphany. There is more in the female part of the cast, but these are the ones that appear at the top level. Most of the other women are tertiary characters, such as a police officer or, especially, numerous mob groupies who lay around snorting powder in lingerie, lolling on couches. This was definitely (a) written by a man, and (b) written for a teen male audience.

Adamo Palladino, Damien T. Raven

The dialogue is stunningly cliché and clumsy in a comic book tone that over enunciates and spaces out words, and is often bland in a pseudo-philosophical way, even with a Noah’s Flood of F-bombs. One piece of monolog by a gang assassin states, “We are what we are. My path is set. Fate already chosen. You knew this was going to happen. Now they are going to die, and there is nothing to stop it.” There are also numerous plot holes that made me kind of antsy; for example, one person is done away with by the mob, yet they left all their information there for the police to find. And why so many short “P” names, such as Poet, Pogo, and Poge? Also, why would the mob crews in warehouses where drugs are being manufactured not have guns?

Good thing is that this can definitely be classified as an action film. Despite the occasional gun play, most of the fighting is hand-to-hand, be it boxing style or mixed martial arts. It is well choreographed and fun to watch as numerous necks are snapped.

I actually like alternative universe comic stories (i.e., other than MCU or DCU), and while this obviously has a decent budget, it is not a multi-million-dollar extravaganza, and that is good. Despite its issues, and it definitely has some, it holds up. It is also nice to see such a large Black cast, which even Spawn did not employ. Furthermore, having the whole “balance” theme is a nice touch.

The film definitely sets up for a sequel, as promises that are made are indicated at the end (I will not divulge). Personally, I was thinking of a couple of really good, unexpected Yangs to Lazarus’s Ying, as I said, but despite that they chose the obvious route, and I am okay with that. I am looking forward to the next installment, whenever that will be, and I hope they give the female characters a bit more to chew on, story-wise.

Kevin Lukata

For the visuals, the film is well-shot and edited, with cool “swipes” between scenes in an appropriately comic book sort of look. However, as is an issue in too many films, especially independents, Lazarus expresses “darkness” or night through a dark, blue lens. Okay, this is a nice way to make it moody, but it also makes it harder to see what the hell is going on. This is a pet peeve of mine. Not all of us have HD 30” screens, y’know. Despite that (rather than because of it), it’s a pretty enjoyable story, even with the “comic book” reigns on the acting styles, also to purposely give it a mood to fit the dialogue.

While this film is available on DVD and Blu-ray, it can also be seen for free on TubiTv.com; however, note that because it is an exclusive release, they need to pay for it considering the platform is free, so when I viewed it, there were 5 commercials at about 9 minutes, 3 at 31 minutes, 4 at 51 minutes, 4 at 63 minutes, 3 at 76 minutes, and 3 at 90 minutes (and all had right-wing/NRA-sponsoring Coors). That’s 22 ads at about 20 seconds each, or 7.5 minutes. Phew.