1984’s The Toxic Avenger was weird, gross, gory, and such an incredible and unique piece of media. It gained a massive enough cult following to grow into a franchise with sequels, an animated series, action figures, and comic books. Like most media, it’s been rebooted for the modern era. Simply titled The Toxic Avenger, the new film has a lot to live up to in the eyes of Troma fans everywhere. Does it stand up to the challenge, or was it better off staying sealed away in the toxic waste barrel? Let’s take a look at every delightfully disgusting detail to find out.

The Good

The special effects throughout this new Toxic Avenger film are positively fantastic. The traditional effects used for Toxie look insanely good. His weird, pulsating, green flesh looks completely lifelike. It’s enough to make you want to touch him but not at the same time. Elijah Wood and Kevin Bacon’s characters also get decked out with some pretty impressive makeup. The gore effects look just as great. The gore that’s done traditionally looks fantastic, but there are quite a few instances of it being done with CGI. Thankfully, the CGI gore looks pretty good.

The film is chock full of dark humor. A lot of the violence is done comedically, and it always works. There are also plenty of hilarious lines of dialogue throughout. Watch this with a big crowd if you can, because you’ll be laughing and cheering quite a few times. The tone is twisted and fun, which feels appropriate for The Toxic Avenger. The movie also serves as a bit of a parody of superhero origin movies, even taking cliched shots and turning them on their head. It’s an absolute riot for its whole runtime.

While there’s plenty of gore and humor, there are also some important messages present. There’s obviously commentary on environmentalism, which was also the whole point of the source material. It’s both welcome and handled nicely here. In addition to that, there are also themes revolving around corporations mistreating their workers, insurance companies caring more about making a quick buck than actually helping people, and how certain groups of people behave in a toxic manner when something as little as a fast food logo changes or there’s an ounce of progressiveness in media. It’s all incorporated well and is nice to see.

There’s quite a bit of heart present in the movie as well. There’s nothing overly sad or sentimental. No one is going to cry because of this movie, but there are touching moments between characters, like Winston and his stepson growing closer. The story also really makes the audience feel for Winston and what he’s going through. These touching scenes give the story emotional weight and give the audience a reason to care about the characters, so while there are people being torn to shreds by a mop filled with hazardous waste and having their arms torn off, there is a reason to actually care. It makes the characters feel more real despite the surreal movie they’re in.

What furthers that immersion is that the actors don’t hold back. They all know they’re in something over the top and ridiculous, and they embrace it and have fun with it. No one is phoning it in. They give it their all and it makes everything that much more fun for the audience.

The Bad

Some of the editing is paced weirdly here and there. There are scenes in which things cut away to something else far too quickly. It’s mostly an issue with the action and gore scenes, where they show everything front and center for the shock, but cut away from the good stuff without giving the audience a chance to appreciate it as much. It’s not every action or gore season, but it definitely happens a few times. It makes for some awkward action at times. This also happens (only slightly, at least) in a couple of the more story-oriented scenes in which the movie cuts away from an interesting dialogue or an explanation of something, cuts to something else, then back to the scene we were just at. It never feels bad, per se, it’s just a little awkward and slightly distracting.

There’s a scene in which Toxie heals another character by using his toxic blood. She’s healed pretty quickly and that’s that. What’s a bit of a letdown is that she didn’t obtain some sort of mutation from it. This is a huge missed opportunity. When other characters are exposed to this toxic sludge, they mutate, why doesn’t she? It would have been so cool to see a third arm or some other mutation be used during the final fight. Why bother having the scene if it didn’t set anything up?

Conclusion

The Toxic Avenger reboot pays homage to the classic movie in many ways, giving long-time fans a lot to look forward to while also serving as just as much of a treat for newcomers. It’s an extremely fun movie that feels like a 2000s superhero origin movie on drugs, and I mean that in the best way possible. It’s funny, gory, bizarre, over-the-top, and just plain entertaining.

Sure, there are some flaws holding it back, but I’d love to see those improved on in a sequel of some sort. This is the perfect movie to build a new franchise on. Maybe it could even lead into a live action version of The Toxic Crusaders. For now, though, this is a movie that’s worth enjoying for what it is, and it’s sure to become a cult classic just like the original.

Rating: 8.5/10

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