Mind Over Matter
Trained in many mystical skills which allows him to use powers such as becoming invisible and clouding people's minds, Lamont Cranston, aka The Shadow (Alec Baldwin), uses those skills to fight crime and battle evil. And it is evil he finds himself trying to thwart when his nemesis, Shiwan Khan (John Lone), a man equally as powerful in these mystical skills of mind control, plans to take over the world by first taking over a city with a use of an atomic bomb to hold it to ransom.
A charming man with a super hero alter ego who not only finds himself battling evil but falling for a woman. That short sentence feels like it applies to almost every super hero movie or at least the majority of them and maybe why when I recently watched "The Shadow" I found myself struggling to stay fully engaged in to what was going on. Now in fairness whilst I am well aware that "The Shadow" the movie was a 90s take on a character which had been around in pulp fiction since the early 1930s I had not come across him on screen before. And that maybe an important point because many of those who really enjoyed this 1994 version of "The Shadow" were not just familiar with the character but were fans.
But as I mentioned, "The Shadow" does pretty much run to the usual super hero movie formula and as such we have the dashing Lamont Cranston, aka The Shadow, finding himself not only involved with the attractive Margo Lane but also doing battle with Shiwan Khan. Yes there are some specifics to this such as Margo able to read minds whilst Khan can make entire buildings invisible but the formula is pretty standard. As such it comes down to styling and this is very much old style in an over the top manner rather than being dark and brooding or tongue in cheek. The thing is that with it being over the top it often ends up a little too daft and that ends up becoming too cheesy for me.
What this all boils down to is that "The Shadow" isn't a bad movie but it didn't do it for me and that is probably due to having not been into The Shadow prior to watching it. But for those who do have a fondness for this 1930s/40s pulp fiction character are likely to enjoy it a lot more with it certainly going all out to recreate that style.
