Black Scorpion

Ever since the original "Superman" film from the late seventies, Hollywood has been conducting a long-running love-affair with the comic book superhero. Most of the well-known figures from the Marvel and DC comics stables have been given their own film franchises- Superman, Batman, Spiderman, The Hulk, Captain America, The Fantastic Four, X-Men, etc. Indeed, many more obscure figures have also been adapted for the cinema; until the recent film came out, for example, I had no idea that Thor was a crime-fighting superhero as well as a Norse god.

One curious exception to the rush to turn superheroes and superheroines into film stars is Wonder Woman, even though she was given her own long- running TV series, starring Lynda Carter, in the seventies. One explanation I have heard for this omission is that, although Wonder Woman was originally conceived as a symbol of female empowerment, her skimpy costume makes her today more of a male fantasy-figure. Hollywood producers are therefore worried that they will be accused of sexism if she keeps her original costume and of cowardly political correctness if she is forced to change it for something less revealing. Far safer, therefore, to steer clear of her altogether.

Roger Corman, however, appears to be quite unworried about allegations of either sexism or political correctness, because he acted as the producer of "Black Scorpion", a film whose eponymous heroine wears a costume quite as scanty as Wonder Woman's. Unlike most of the other superheroes who have become the subject of films she was an original creation, not derived from a comic book. (A "Black Scorpion" comic book came later). Actually, the word "original" might not be entirely appropriate in this context as the Black Scorpion shares many traits with other crime fighters, especially Batman. Like Batman, but unlike Superman or Spiderman, she does not actually possess any super powers, so has to rely upon strength, agility and technology, including a Batmobile-style car, to overcome the bad guys.

Like all self-respecting superheroes, the Black Scorpion keeps her real identity a close secret. Batman hid behind the millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne and Superman the mild-mannered, bespectacled journalist Clark Kent, and the Black Scorpion's alter ego is Darcy Walker, whose day job is that of a police detective. Darcy, however, finds herself frustrated by the limitations of police procedure, especially after her own father is murdered, and therefore moonlights as a freelance vigilante, a role in which she need not bother with all that civil liberties stuff about not beating suspects up or reading them their Miranda rights.

If this scenario were taken at all seriously, it could have formed the basis for an intriguing "Dirty Harry"- style thriller about the ethics of law enforcement, but "Black Scorpion" is not a film that takes itself seriously at all. Darcy is not so much a Dirty Harriet as a Batwoman, the model for the film being the camp "Batman" TV series of the 1960s rather than Tim Burton's rather brooding, Gothic interpretation of the Batman mythos. There are, however, certain parallels with Joel Schumacher's two Batman films which also came out during the mid nineties. Both the storyline and the characters are deliberately exaggerated and unrealistic, the whole thing being played more for laughs than for thrills.

We need not bother too much with the plot, standard superhero stuff in which the Black Scorpion thwarts a supervillain known as the Breathtaker, who has a particularly complex scheme for seizing power in the "City of Angels (for which, presumably, read Los Angeles) and who turns out to have been responsible for killing Darcy's father.

The heroine is played by the former supermodel Joan Severance, clearly cast more on the basis of her ability to look good in a revealing costume than on the basis of any acting talents, but in the context of a film like this acting talents do not really matter very much. One thing that does matter is that, although the Black Scorpion relies heavily on her martial arts prowess, Severance does not seem to possess any great fighting skills herself, and the fight sequences seem obviously staged. There is a contrast here with the work of other action heroes and heroines like Steven Segal, Jean-Claude van Damme or Cynthia Rothrock; they may not possess much in the way of acting skills, but at least they do know how to fight. The producers are never quite brave enough to turn the fight scenes into part of the joke, in the way that the "Batman" television series did , complete with captions reading "BIFF!", "WHAM!!" or "KERPOW!!!"

The problem with camp, self-mocking action films like this one is that they are essentially one-joke comedies, a joke which is forced to stretch a long way. The Adam West "Batman" was tolerable on TV in half- hour doses; indeed, if you were a child during the sixties (as I was), it was great fun. When the concept was extended into a standard-length feature film it became a bit tedious. "Black Scorpion" suffers from the same drawback, it is just one long, over-extended joke. 4/10

I had just seen another Roger Corman film, "The Death Artist" less than a week before this was on, and I found that film very funny and entertaining. I have also seen another Corman film, "Sawbones," which was quite entertaining in itself, so I had high hopes for this one and it very, very much let me down.

The only "good" part of "Black Scorpion" is a cheesy villian called "the Breathtaker," who looks and acts about a serious as the villians in "The Power Rangers," and I guess is supposed to want to take over the city by spraying toxic chemicals or something silly like that. It sounds dumb, and is, and even "The Breathtaker" had his dull moments(like what was with all of his bumbling villian apprentices, especially two annoying female wrestlers, and where, by the way, did he get the power to fly?), but he was better than anything else in the movie. My only major problem with him was not even necessarily related to the character itself, but I must wonder why different actors were used to play The Breathtaker and the, uh, person behind the Breathtaker's mask? Did whomever was in charge of casting think that one or the other of them couldn't pull off the effect by themself? Was the voice of the Breathtaker too "ugly" to have his face revealed, which more or less makes his human counterpart some himbo cast only for his looks? Because that's not very fair to either of them, but I suppose even that discrepancy with "Black Scorpion" did not TOTALLY ruin the film for me...

What ruins "Black Scorpion" is its stupid title character, some bimboey "police officer" named Darcy, (Joan Severance) who, as a cop seems to masquerade as a prostitute with some..."real" prostitute until her daddy(Rick Rossovich, who, as a result of utterly cheap casting looks about the SAME AGE as Severance)is for some reason gunned down by the local DA, and Darcy gets canned(or suspended?) for police brutality after she goes to confront him in jail. A combination of seeking justice for her father's death and letting down her dull prostitute friend inspires Darcy to become the "Black Scorpion," a female superhero that goes around saving...other prostitutes, or at least not-very-properly-dressed people from bad folks, who all seem to somehow be connected to the Breathtaker. I really didn't know how the Black Scorpion's saving the world connected to the Breathtaker, except somewhere in the middle half, Darcy/The Black Scorpion suddenly realizes that he must have been involved in her father's death. Abruptly after that, it suddenly jumps to "who is the Breathtaker?," so what was the point of all of that other junk? Who knows and the character of "Darcy," her charisma-free boyfriend and prostitute friend, and pretty much everyone else were not interested enough for me to make any kind of exceptions to not-very-well developed writing. If people want to make a stupid, intentionally campy film, they can at least make it a WELL-WRITTEN stupid, intentionally campy film, as "Sawbones" and "The Death Artist" proved to be. What went wrong with this one?

I really didn't know much about this film before I watched it... just that it was a female Batman and that Roger Corman was an executive producer on it(and I'm trying to watch every last one of the films he has collaborated on that I can find). I was pleasantly surprised with the film. It's very campy and entertaining. There's no pretense here. The film knows that it's corny comic-book entertainment, and it never acts like anything else. We've got a pair of retired female pro-wrestlers as minor villains. We've got a police captain who is never seen without a lit cigarette in his hand or mouth. We've even got a shape-shifting Batmobile which only responds if you end each request with a "yo". Just about every single opportunity for campiness is put to good use. The plot is quite good, though it is somewhat predictable, in that it follows comic-book formula all the way, from start to finish. Of course, that only adds to the entertainment. The pacing is great. I wasn't bored for a second. The acting is as corny as the rest of the film. The characters are all comic-book clichés, but the main characters are surprisingly fleshed out and well-developed. There's plenty of alluring shots of females showing off a fair bit of skin, most of them being of the Black Scorpion herself. The action is highly entertaining, and very comic-book-like. There's plenty of fun one-liners in there as well... Arnold would be proud. This film won't change any lives, but it will entertain most viewers, particularly those who enjoy comic books and campiness in films. It's a stylish comic book film, no more, no less. Something that deserves a mention is that there's a sex scene with the Black Scorpion, which any man who is into S/M and/or attracted to aggressive women should see. I recommend this to fans of comic books and campy films. 6/10

A cop watches the city attorney shoot her father with no apparent motive. She's thrown off the force for police brutality after confronting him in his jail cell, and vows to continue fighting crime by donning a dominatrix outfit and becoming a vigilante superhero.

Given this premise, the film wisely doesn't take itself too seriously, which makes its many glaring shortcomings more forgivable. Statuesque Joan Severance is appropriately amazonian as the title character. There are plenty of fight scenes; also a bit of nudity courtesy of a strip bar and an all-too-brief sex scene with Scorpion in costume.

Overall this is only an average comedy/action/thriller, even by b-grade standards. However, if you're a) a fan of Severance, or b) looking for a video with some intentional and unintentional laughs, a bit of softcore action and some butt-kicking scenes -- you won't be disappointed. My rating: 6/10.

I watched this movie as a teen and thought it was so bad (acting/story/characters) that it was actually great fun to watch. The black scorpion herself can get away with her super heroine/vigilante outfit but the main villain? His outfit was so poor lol! Overall a lot of good fun if you don't take it seriously!