[8.3/10] Man I love the animation possibilities that Clayface opens up. Director Eric Radomski does such a great job finding creative ways to visualize Matt Hagen’s shape shifting powers. When he falls from a tall building and just splooshes into mush on the ground, it grabs your attention. When a man’s face spirals into sentient mud as he pushes his way through the gaps in a locked, it’s frightening. And when he traps Batman himself within his earthen folds, as The Dark Knight pushes and squirms and tries to escape, it’s downright terrifying.
But the direction in “Mudslide” isn’t all spectacle. What’s so great about the episode’s design approach to Clayface here is you feel him struggling to hold together, in his labored steps down the street, in his strained efforts not to allow his disguises to melt away. There’s an air of desperation behind Hagen’s menace, which helps add to the pathos the episode wants to imbue him with.
That ties in nicely with writer Alan Burnett’s story. I like the idea of Clayface being assisted by a medical consultant from one of his movies, hoping to restore his handsome visage and thereby earn his love via Florence Nightingale syndrome just like an on-screen paramour did. It adds to the sense of misguided tragedy to this whole thing, especially when Hagen is temperamental and arguably even abusive.
And yet Batman, dispenser of both justice and mercy, still wants to try to save Hagen. The show definitely leans into the tragic element when Clayface futilly fights Batman in the rain, slowly disintegrating off a cliff and plummeting into the water below as Batman yells his name in shock. There’s a big monster movie vibe to this one, with the same sense of Frankenstein’s monster as dangerous, but also sympathetic.
There’s a surprising number of classic movie references here, appropriate for an actor-turned-villain character. Hagen himself yells out “Stella” a la A Streetcar Named Desire and his helper was apparently the owner of the (or at least a) Bates Motel. I’m sure there’s other homages like those that I didn’t pick up on, and even the final sequence has a certain North by Northwest Hitchcock vibe.
Overall, this is a visual feast whose story creates some interesting dynamics and psychological dimensions for its characters (along with some great dry wit from Alfred as usual).
Shout by TshepisoBlockedParent2022-08-14T06:24:24Z
One thing I don't get about this episode is why Batman stopped the medical process; it was working. If he wanted to save Hagan he could have just let them finish the experiment and arrested him for burglary afterwards.