THE TOXIC AVENGER (2025) - Mark Reviews Movies

The Toxic Avenger, Cineverse

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Review by Mark Dujsik | August 28, 2025

By the time the original adventures of the Toxic Avenger were finished, the superhero, a nerdy guy transformed into a slimy and malformed hulk after bullies threw him into toxic waste, had cleaned up his hometown of crime, traveled to Japan, battled the devil, and taken on his evil self from another dimension. The plots of these movies weren't important, though, since they were mostly about showing gooey gore and pushing boundaries—to the point that the fourth entry opened with a school shooting and mocked people with intellectual disabilities without thinking twice about either (or even once, it could be argued).

Writer/director Macon Blair's The Toxic Avenger is, perhaps, the best version of this material that anyone could make, which is saying both something and not much. It possesses a decent sense of humor, although, given the influx of superhero movies in the two decades or so since the character appeared in a movie, the filmmakers seem to leave the most obvious target of satire or parody untouched. It is filled with bloody violence, but Blair winks about that without being as unnecessarily cruel, which often seemed the real point of some of the worst installments, or ridiculously over-the-top as the previous movies.

It also has Peter Dinklage in the title role, even if it is only his voice after the character's transformation. Luisa Guerreiro gets to wear the makeup and prosthetics that, admittedly, do make Toxie look real. Imagine that—practical effects having a practical effect on our ability to believe something as absurd as a superhero with scaly green skin, a robotic eyeball, and a chemical-infused mop that can knock a baddy's head right off his shoulders.

Sometimes, Dinklage's vocal performance doesn't sound as invested as Toxie's cheesy one-liners seem to demand. Is it possible the actor was disappointed and a bit envious that he didn't get have all of those layers of makeup plastered to his face and body? Guerreiro sells the illusion that Winston, Dinklage's financially struggling janitor, and Toxie are physically one and the same. It was kind of a surprise to learn that it wasn't Dinklage under the makeup and that the tone of his voice wasn't a sign of irritation about having to wear all of it.

The plot of this reboot could have been one from one of the older entries, too. Winston, who works for a pharmaceutical company with questionable products and waste-disposal policies, is diagnosed with some unspecified but quite fatal growth in his brain. Blair has a lot of construction equipment outside the hospital obscure the official diagnosis, possibly so the movie doesn't seem to be exploiting any real-life disease or condition. The fact this movie might have some level of awareness and compassion to do that makes it about as far removed from the older ones as possible.

An expensive and experimental drug could treat Winston's condition, though, and since he's raising his teenage stepson Wade (Jacob Tremblay) on his own, the janitor is desperate to find a way to pay of the treatment. After being rudely rejected by company CEO Bob Garbinger (Kevin Bacon), Winston robs the factory. Unwittingly caught up in Bob's efforts to kill a whistleblower named J.J. (Taylour Pagie), some goons shoot Winston in the head and toss his body in some toxic ooze. He is resurrected and transformed into the Toxic Avenger.

The rest of this is a combination of a generic revenge tale, very broad satire, an homage to some particulars of the previous movies, and, of course, an excuse for plenty of scenes of Toxie killing bad guys in grisly ways. Heads are, indeed, knocked off. Bellies are torn open with the hardened, glowing brush of the hero's mop. One moment has Toxie reaching into a usually covered orifice and pulling out a stretch of organs, as some bursting blood almost seems to frame the awful sight. Those who are unaware of or have not seen the older movies may find such ideas excessive. Those same people, especially the ones believing this to be a bit much, will certainly be shocked to learn that the violence here is downright tame and believable, compared to some of the stuff that was done in those previous entries.

There really isn't much more to say about the movie, because it simply doesn't offer much beyond the obvious and some points of comparison to its predecessors. The plot revolving around modern health care may give the material the illusion of some satirical credibility, but it's mostly hollow. Blair evading the taboo-breaking jokes of the previous movies only means it possesses some degree of decency—for example, not killing dogs and children, trivializing sexual assault, or generally belittling people for attempted shocks and/or laughs, as happened in the older movies.

Otherwise, The Toxic Avenger is not especially imaginative, except for coming up with assorted ways of killing off the bad guys, or funny, particularly because it's only a superhero parody by way of being notably weirder than most. Something this oddball probably shouldn't feel as if it's only trying to do the basics of being weird.

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