Psychotronic Cinemavision: Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D 1998

When agents of the terrorist organization HYDRA attack a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility housing the cryogenically preserved body of Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker and killing Clay Quartermain, a retired Nick Fury (David Hasselhoff) is called back into action.  He is joined by Alexander Goodwin Pierce (Neil Roberts) and Contessa Valentina Allegra De Fontaine (Lisa Rinna).  Hydra is now run by the children of Von Strucker who stole his body which held the secrets to a ultra-deadly virus which could be used as a biological weapon.  The only person who can distill the pathogen from the corpse of Von Strucker is Armin Zola (Peter Haworth) so the team flies to the safehouse where he is being held, but they are betrayed, and Fury is poisoned with a deadly toxin and his only hope is to get a sample of blood from the woman who infected him, Viper / Andrea Von Strucker (Sandra Hess).  Hydra now has the weapon and targets Manhattan, and the team splits up with the Contessa leading the Manhattan team as Fury attacks Strucker’s hideout in the Aleutian Islands.  Both teams must use all their resources, cunning and brute strength to save the world from Hydra’s dastardly plan!

Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a 1998 American television superhero film based on the character in Marvel Comics.  It was intended to be a backdoor pilot, meaning that the film would hopefully lead to an ongoing weekly series. Written by David Goyer who also wrote a couple other Marvel Comic movies including the Blade movie trilogy and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. In addition, he wrote the first two Nolan Batman films, and the Snyder Superman films Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Nick Fury was originally broadcast on May 26, 1998, on the Fox network and was met with mostly negative reviews. David Hasselhoff did garner some praise for his performance, but the film overall was found to have bad execution and dialogue.  The film has been called a “Schlocky throwaway TV movie” and has made lists as one of the top ten worst Marvel movies.  Den of Geek describes it best as “a time filler that doesn’t stray too far from Marvel’s established SHIELD characters but didn’t do anything terribly compelling with them either”.  This film, of course, predates the current ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe but does represent the character of Nick Fury more faithfully to the source material.  Of course, Samuel L. Jackson superbly plays the character in the current films and the comic books have been updated to match.

I feel this film was made during a transitional era and didn’t quite make it out of the past tropes that superhero films and television series fell into.  The movie industry still treated comic book related movies as if they had to be made for children and Goyer wrote the script to be very “tongue in cheek”. This is two years before the first X-Men film and four years before the first big budget Spider-Man movie, which I feel kicked off the modern superhero film genre with studios actually caring about the story and writing compelling scripts that showcase both superpowers and character development. Nick Fury was stuck in the old ways and contained the over-the-top acting and dialogue that inappropriately removes any sense of tension or gravitas from the film and instead generates a campy atmosphere not to be taken seriously.  Sandra Hess specifically plays the “Big Bad” deeply campy akin to the villains in the 1960s Batman series.  The audience is led to believe that the Contessa and Fury were estranged lovers who deeply care for each other, but the two had very poor chemistry with each other.  I am not a fan of either actor and felt that neither of their performances displayed any truth or genuine emotion.  It all felt forced.  The script is full of easter eggs, name dropping popular characters from the comic books and had some fun and quotable dialogue, but the dialogue itself did not feel like it was coming from a place of realism, which makes it hard for the audience to connect and care about the characters.  All that being said, the storyline is kind of interesting and the movie moves and a good pace with an alright rhythm.  It isn’t unwatchable and can actually be fun at times and made me chuckle at a couple of places along the way.