Witchblade
"Pilot"

Airdate: August 27, 2000

Although I tend to be a fan of pretty much all things comic-related, I want it to be known at the outset that I was never a fan of Top Cow Comics' Witchblade series. It was of the Spawn mold, long on style (and the word "style" in the comic world tends to be used primarily in conjunction with frighteningly accurate depictions of Cindy Crawford body doubles dolled up in leopard-pattern thongs or skimpy pink teddies) and pretty much lacking in anything resembling substance. I'd thumbed through friends' copies of the book a few times, noted some mostly inept dialogue, some inane storytelling and the like. The worst aspect of it was that Witchblade tried to be a police procedural as well as your basic T & A book, but the writers and artists were really much more interested in seeing the character of Sara Pezzini as scantily clad as she could get.

So it should be no surprise that I went into TNT's original production of the Witchblade movie with no small degree of skepticism. I wanted to be proven right, you see, as I had been upon the release of the Spawn film, which had proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that no one read that comic for a complicated plot arc. I wanted to hate Witchblade and, furthermore, I wanted to use it to continue my ongoing argument that comic/film adaptations, especially those that find their basis in some already shaky material, are destined for failure.

The fact that this was a case in which I couldn't have been more wrong, that, indeed, the movie was a rousing success, is a source of great delight to me.

Like the comic, the film version of Witchblade follows the travails of Detective Sara Pezzini (Yancy Butler), a fifth generation cop still nursing deep emotional wounds caused by the murder of her father, a beat cop who was very close to his family. She's also more than mildly distressed to discover that a childhood friend was also recently murdered. The two seemingly separate events are tied together by an oily local mobster named Gallo (George Jenesky), who Sara is convinced is responsible for both deaths as well as a ton of requisite shady dealings. Being that he's well-connected, that of course makes him untouchable, and Sara has made it her mission in life to bring him to justice. Along for the ride is her partner, Danny Woo (Will Yun Lee), a by-the-book cop whose role is to reel Sara in when she loses her temper. It's the basic cop set-up seen in a thousand cop thrillers; here, however, it works.

And so it is that, less than fifteen minutes into the picture, Sara has confronted Gallo, saved Danny from certain death, and found herself trapped in a museum trading gunshots with a professional assassin. Lucky for her, the museum happens to be displaying the ancient and mysterious Witchblade, which at first glance appears to be this funky, armored metal glove but is really a sort of power cell that amplifies feminine force a thousand fold. It's also shiny and stylish. And after avoiding a few slo-mo, Matrix-esque bullet-time projectiles, Sara of course ends up sticking her hand into the darned thing. Contrived? Yeah. But it's so well done, so stylishly accomplished that its triteness (a similar scene appears in Army of Darkness) is easily forgiven in the name of fun.

With the power of the Witchblade backing her up, Sara commences ass-kicking in some major ways. But problems arise quickly -- first, the Witchblade itself is communicating some pretty disturbing stuff through her dreams, and second, her every move is being tracked by a mysterious (and apparently immortal) multimillionaire named Kenneth Irons (Anthony Cistaro) who's employed an enigmatic stranger named Ian Nottingham (Eric Etebari) to shadow her. And Nottingham is a seriously weird individual who when not slinking around in a ski cap and delivering unfathomable Yoda-like statements to Sara, is having sepia-toned flashbacks of his childhood training as an assassin, during which he's always decked out in kiddy cowboy gear.

For a comic book movie, especially one that's centered around a superheroine, this is some pretty strange territory. But it's brought together by a tremendous performance from Butler, who here gives what may very well be one of the finest female performances on any television show. Butler plays it straight; she's tough and believable, and when she dukes it out with the requisite baddies, it's easy to buy her whooping some ass. And although she's an attractive woman, she's also a bit harsh, as any woman in the detective game would be. Late in the movie, when her character has taken a huge emotional beating, we get to see her exterior crumble to reveal the same child that's in all of us, and it's to Butler's credit that Sara Pezzini is a perfectly developed character that only happens to be a woman. She's the main reason to watch it, but kudos also need to go to director Ralph Hemecker, a veteran of the extremely underrated Millennium, who brings an eccentric sense of style to the proceedings. Sure, there's an over-use of bullet time, but there are also some really excellent bits, as evidenced primarily in a breathtaking scene in which Sara contemplates her newfound powers while sitting on her apartment balcony -- she remains at normal speed while the cars outside rush by in mach-hyper blur. Another involves a subway station battle that plays itself out as a cross between Excalibur and High Noon.

Since it was designed as a prospective pilot, Witchblade sets up a lot more mysteries than it solves. Who is Kenneth Irons, and why is he so interested in Sara and the Witchblade? What is Ian Nottingham's agenda? When will Hollywood finally stop forcing action directors to steal from The Matrix? Since Witchblade pulled in some of the best ratings of the week in which it was aired, it looks like we're going to find out. And I couldn't be happier to go along for the ride. Just don't ask me to read the comic book again.

-- David Rosiak

Witchblade should be announced as an upcoming series any day now on TNT.

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