The Toxic Avenger (2025) - Film Review

      The Toxic Avenger, 2025.

      Written and directed by Macon Blair.

      Featuring Peter Dinklage, Jacob Tremblay, Kevin Bacon, Elijah Wood, Taylour Paige, Julia Davis, Sarah Niles, Macon Blair, Lloyd Kaufman, Spencer Wilding, Jonny Coyne, Atanas Srebrev, Lee Eddy, Rebecca O’Mara, David Yow, Chris Sharp, Brent Werzner, Randy E. Aguebor, Ev Lunning, Jane Levy, Luisa Guerreiro, Shaun Dooley, Annette Badland, and Sunil Patel.

      SYNOPSIS:

      A disastrous toxic event transforms the beleaguered janitor, Winston Gooze, into an evolved hero known as The Toxic Avenger. Realistically, it was never likely that a studio-friendly rendition of Troma and Lloyd Kaufman’s The Toxic Avenger would match the original’s dark humor or its grotesque violence. However, this doesn’t imply that writer/director Macon Blair (a devoted fan of The Toxic Avenger) was destined for failure. There exists a gratifying balance that maintains practical gore and a fair amount of edgy humor within a narrative that surprisingly has a soft heart (though it starts rather slowly, focusing excessively on family dynamics), centering on a father wanting acceptance from his stepson before he passes away.

      The melding of these elements proves effective, as Macon Blair understands what he is creating and recognizes the audience, never allowing elements like melodramatic family conflict to feel overly overwhelming or gravely serious; instead, they flow naturally in a story fit for this unconventional superhero.

      More of a reimagining than a straightforward remake, Peter Dinklage plays Winston Gooze, a widowed janitor working for a corrupt pharmaceutical firm and a single stepfather to Wade (Jacob Tremblay), a teenager who aspires to be noticed and understood through his dancing. Recently, this has been hard due to the death of the boy’s mother and Winston's own diagnosis of a neurological illness, giving him six months to a year left to live with no funds for treatment. A desperate request to the company's unsympathetic CEO Bob Garbinger (Kevin Bacon) yields no success.

      Instead, Winston accidentally teams up with J.J. Doherty (Taylour Paige), sneaking into the company after hours to collect evidence that their products are toxic. Winston finds himself at the bottom of a toxic waste pit, which transforms him into the improbably powerful superhero, while still voiced by Dinklage but portrayed physically by Luisa Guerreiro in a monstrous form. Dinklage’s performance is oddly charming, and he grasps the tone of the film excellently, particularly during a comedic yet tense scene that involves his supercharged acidic urine.

      What follows resembles elements of RoboCop, where the crimefighter isn’t a cyborg but instead a henchman who disintegrates upon contact with toxic waste and wanders in front of a speeding vehicle. As his stepson grows terrified of him, Winston (who earns the nickname Toxie) finds himself at a humorously named diner, defending citizens from an aggrieved mob over trivial matters while also poking fun at blind patrons.

      The deaths are even wackier, with Toxie wielding a toxic mop that delivers an impact akin to Thor’s hammer if those films had an R-rating. While decapitations and dismemberments occur, the body parts are often sliced in symmetry or creatively impaled, enhanced by impressive makeup effects.

      Given that Wade previously criticized Winston for not attempting to protect citizens or even animals from the corrupt authorities of the town, embracing a superhero persona might not just be a means of self-discovery for Winston, but also a way to connect with his stepson. There is a further, unexplored dimension as Peter Dinklage has dwarfism, potentially linking some of Wade’s feelings to internalized ableism (it remains ambiguous what physical actions Wade expects Winston to take to protect others before his transformation). The reasonable choice to avoid delving deeper into such themes is that this is a contemporary Troma film, which doesn’t require exploring such metaphors.

      That’s acceptable: The Toxic Avenger includes a punk rock gang of henchmen called The Killer Nutz tracking down Toxie on behalf of Bob Garbinger, one of whom comically performs flips in every scene. Unsurprisingly, one of these flips results in a hilarious demise worthy of the ticket price alone. Meanwhile, Bob’s unsettling brother (played by Elijah Wood, resembling a Tim Burton-inspired Penguin) is tasked with locating and abducting Wade for leverage, as there is significant profit to gain from Toxie’s blood samples for pharmaceutical use.

      Humor is abundant, whether it appears in background gags, on-screen text, cuts to bickering news anchors, or moments of sheer hilar