Plot Murdered cop Denny Colt, mysteriously returned to life, protects Central City as its masked hero, the Spirit. Jewel thief Sand Serif, Denny’s childhood sweetheart, competes with the Octopus, a master crook who shares the Spirit’s invulnerability and knows the secret of Denny’s resurrection, to obtain a mythical treasure.
Review
This contemporary take on Will Eisner’s 1940s comic is too strained to play well. It suffers from clumsy slapstick, so, when the hero is bashed with a lavatory, it’s hard not to argue with the villain’s desperate ‘come on, toilets are always funny!’ And Gabriel Macht’s black-masked, red-tied, fedora-sporting vigilante – who loves the ladies only slightly less than he loves his city – is a deliberately chiselled, simple good guy in contrast with the father-obsessed misfits of recent superhero movies.
Director/writer/comics auteur Frank Miller, who deconstructed Batman a generation before Christopher Nolan, even jokes about the hung-up-on-Daddy cliché as a police woman laboriously explains the antiheroine’s Electra Complex to impatient guys who just want to get on with hitting people.
The film’s problem is that it takes a reel or so for the penny to drop that the gorgeous, noirish, snowy, CGI-augmented visuals which evoke Miller’s Sin City are at odds with an essentially comical approach. It’s as if Miller were answering The Dark Knight’s ‘Why so serious?’ with ‘Why so whimsical?’ -- while an unrestrained, probably uncontrollable Samuel L. Jackson, cast as the Octopus (just a pair of evil gloves in the strips) seems bent on fulfilling a lifelong ambition to be special guest villain on the Adam West Batman show.
As in many comic adaptations, there’s not much of a story – Miller invents a Wolverine-ish origin Eisner couldn’t be bothered with – and supporting characters from various periods in the strip’s run are crammed in almost at random. It also substitutes roof-running for action, and misses much of the quirky charm and humanity of Eisner’s originals.
Like Sin City, The Spirit works best as a catalogue of glamorous, kinky pin-ups. Not since Mike Hodges’ Flash Gordon have so many idealised beauties paraded in extreme fetishwear for a Boys Own’ movie: Eva Mendes redeems a ‘you’ve made a perfect ass of me’ photocopied bottom joke, Scarlett Johanssen dons hornrims and naughty nurse gear (she gets a Gestapo uniform too), Stana Katic sports the ultimate in tailored cop outfits and Jaime King shimmers as a siren of death only heard by cops and sailors.
Verdict This settles onto a shelf with Dick Tracy, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Doc Savage – The Man of Bronze and The Shadow: displaying admirable love for pulp material and striking enviably sexy poses, but missing the emotional resonance, zeitgeist-catching populism and mainstream thrills which found movie franchises.
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Average user rating for The Spirit
The Spirit
If the spirit is to be truely enjoyed wear ear plugs because the film looks stunning (the reason for the 2 stars), the fascinating visuals are the only thing that will keep you mildly interested in this failed superhero film. The script is packed with dire-alogue that at times is cringe-worthy, "I'm gonna kill you all kinds of dead" and the the characters are cardboard cut-out. Of all the wasted cast Jackson gives the best performence (which is not really saying much) as the villain th... Read More
The biggest pile of horse-shite I've seen in a long time. The Spirit is the very definition of A) a dumb comic book caper, B) a vanity project and C) an incomprehensible script. I'll give it a star for Johannssen's cleavage and the girl in the lift but this is complete bollocks. ... Read More
After seeing the excellent Sin City and 300, Frank Miller has given us a another comic book movie that has many famlier things in both of the movies but with a different kind of hero: one that isn't cold or too dark to warm to. The Sprit begins with him chasing after the Octopus (wicked name) and finding that his long lost love is still around, finding the one thing she wanted since childhood. It has the snow, the dark corners and the colours like Sin City but with a lighter and comic side that ... Read More
Why Milles has decided to make The Spirit the same way as Sin City? It's totally miss the point. Anyway, bad acting and bad screenplay make this movies very boring experience. Some funny scenes and pretty good special effects do not resque it from total fail. ... Read More
because they really are stunning and really cool. Some parts are like a moving comic (when you only see the color of the cape and stuff) and there are great visual ideas....and the women are hot!
other than that......let's hope watchmen lives up to its comic greatness and does not fall flat like this decorated piece of shit! ... Read More
2"]The guy playing The Spirit, whose name escapes me, was pretty good. Samuel L. Jackson was Samuel L. Jackson. Scarlett Johansson was smoking hot.
Those are all the positives about the steaming pile of shit that is The Spirit.
... Read More
L: hatebox
Not nearly as awful as I'd heard, but still a 'bad' film.
2 things are it's undoing : Jackson is excruciating, a completely unfunny parody of himself, and the structure is a mess. The beginning felt like it should have been in the middle and the middle felt like it should have been the beginning. Then it all sort of just stops after a fairly non-descript finale.
Macht made it just about watchable though. He had a genuine star quality and I hope this doesn't implode hi... Read More
Not nearly as awful as I'd heard, but still a 'bad' film.
2 things are it's undoing : Jackson is excruciating, a completely unfunny parody of himself, and the structure is a mess. The beginning felt like it should have been in the middle and the middle felt like it should have been the beginning. Then it all sort of just stops after a fairly non-descript finale.
Macht made it just about watchable though. He had a genuine star quality and I hope this doesn't implode his career.
... Read More
The law of diminishing returns, means that had this come out before SIn City and 300 etc it would have at least got kudos for visual style - but it didn't - it just looks like old hat now. I left with 30 minutes still left of the film utterly fed up and bored beyond belief. A feature length episode of Colombo would have been far more watchable, better written and acted - than this pathetic tripe. Everyone associated should be deeply embarrassed - if there was ever a time it was obvious Samuel L ... Read More
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