Darkman - 1990

I had never seen this movie before and knew nothing about it. I wasn't expecting much and everything about it looked old (actually it looked even older than simply 1990) and a few special effects were now boring ( I mean his visions, not at all a correct term but I don't know how to describe it). And yet it wasn't bad. It had its own charm, and I liked the make-up! Darkman was something after all. The ending was good, which is always so very important. The last line is good "I'm everyone and no one, everywhere and nowhere. Call me... Darkman" before he disappears in the crowd. He's like Diabolik but on the good side :-p Sort of. He doesn't leave the bad guys to be arrested like Batman does, he kills them!
Now the story: Peyton Westlake (Liam Neeson) is a scientist working to create synthetic skin, and he's halfway there. The skin is perfect for 99 minutes then it starts decaying until it melts altogether. He finds out that it can last longer in the dark, but that's not good enough for him. Obviously.
He has a girlfriend, Julie (Frances McDormand) and as all career women back in the days she was totally focused on her career and thought to be untouchable. Silly girl, she finds a document proving a very rich and powerful man 'might be' corrupt, and she goes to him to give him the benefit of the doubt. Silly silly girl. This man Strack (Colin Friels) sends Robert Durant (Larry Drake) to retrieve it. Here is the part that left me confused. Did Peyton live in his lab? Why did he have the document with him while working? Anyway, they kill his assistant and blow up the lab. He was in really bad condition already before the explosion, so of course they believe him dead. After the funeral Julie starts going out with Strack, believing him kind and comforting. She had no suspicions whatsoever!
But Peyton didn't die, he was found and cured at a hospital. He can no more feel pain, and because of this he's much stronger than he was and also incapable of properly controlling his emotions.
He runs away from the hospital and goes to his old lab. His hands are ruined and he looks like the face of Death. Very little skin has survived on his face. He hopes to make his synthetic skin work, but in the meantime he works on his revenge. He kills Durant's men by wearing their own faces to trick them and eventually him too. The final showdown will be between him and Strack.
In his lab he recreates his old face to spend time with Julie, happy to find him alive but knowing nothing of his real condition. When he wins a prize for her at a carnival and the man there refuses to give it to him, he becomes furious and loses control; also his skin is deteriorating so eventually he apologizes to Julie and runs away, but she runs after him. She discovers his secret but doesn't run away from him. The emotion of having him back is too great to give him up easily, she loves him too.
She breaks up with Strack and tells him that Peyton is alive (!!) but soon after that she discovers that he's the bad guy responsible of everything when she sees that he has the incriminating document and she (unknowingly, of course, silly girl) leads his men to him. Peyton has created masks with their faces and he's able to confuse them and kill them. Strack took Julie, so Peyton wears Durant's face to meet him but is found out easily. They fight and when Strack is about to fall down and Peyton is holding him by one leg (or ankle, whatever) Strack is still arrogant and confident and tells him that he knows him and knows that he won't let him die. Peyton says "I'm learning to live with a lot of things" and lets him fall. Now Julie is safe, and she had a good look at what remains of Peyton's face, and she says "you'll perfect the skin, you'll make it work, it doesn't matter" because she wants to stay with him, but Peyton tells her that he once believed that himself but he simply has changed now, not only his appearance, and he's not the man he used to be, so he leaves her. Again she runs after him but this time he has put on a mask, a face she doesn't know, so when he hides in the crowd she can't find him.
Cool ending, I liked it.