The Spirit Review

Posted by Steve Gustafson on 01.09.2009

"Friends, readers, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury The Spirit, not to praise it. The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones..."


Gabriel Macht: The Spirit / Denny Colt
Samuel L. Jackson: The Octopus
Dan Gerrity: Det. Sussman
Eva Mendes: Sand Saref
Louis Lombardi: Pathos, etc.
Scarlett Johansson: Silken Floss
Larry Reinhardt-Meyer: Officer MacReady
Frank Miller: Liebowitz
Eric Balfour: Mahmoud
Sarah Paulson: Ellen Dolan

Directed by Frank Miller
Comic book by Will Eisner
Screenplay by Frank Miller
Release date: December 25, 2008
Running time 102 min.
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of stylized violence and action, some sexual content and brief nudity.




The movie has come, and pretty much gone, the reviews have come in, and the audience has spoken by staying away. But is The Spirit as bad as we are led to believe? Sadly, nothing I'm about to write is going to be any different in terms of reviewing this movie as a big budgeted, highly stylized failure. Now , it would be easy for me to just say this movie stinks and move on. I could rip Frank Miller apart for failing to give a proper adaptation to the genius work of Will Eisner. Or I could point and laugh at the asinine script ("I had you beat like eggs!"). But that would all too easy.

I walked into the theater with a deep desire to see the good. To be able to say it's not as bad as people are making it out to be. I wanted to be “that guy”! I looked. I really looked for things to like. It was tough to walk out of the theater and feel so dejected. Yes, cinematographer Bill Pope and his crew did a superb job with the look, feel, and background. But outside that, nothing. Everything you heard about the dialog, the overacting of Samuel Jackson, the plot holes, Miller's lack of comedic sense...all true. As the credits rolled I was struck with the thought that this movie suffered most from a severe identity crisis. I asked myself several times, "What is this movie trying to be?" In a year where we enjoyed The Dark Knight, Iron Man, and The Incredible Hulk, The Spirit is hopelessly lost. The cinematography wants to be edgy noir while the script calls for the movie to be over-the-top camp. The intention is there, but the end result is lacking. I feel the worst crime this film commits is that it will drive away those who have never had the pleasure of picking up a Will Eisner book. After seeing this abomination on screen they will dismiss the books with failure by association.

Ok, let's talk about the plot. Should I even give you a SPOILER WARNING? I can't imagine who I would be spoiling this for. I can't imagine HOW I could spoil this. The the film is fairly basic, and serves only to deliver opportunities for numerous stylistic elements and sight gags. It follows former police officer Denny Colt (Gabriel Macht), who was gunned down in the line of duty, and is now a masked crime fighter in Central City. He doesn't remember how or why he's come back from the dead, and hasn't really cared until his arch-nemesis "The Octopus" (Samuel L. Jackson) tells him that they have more in common than the Spirit thinks. He's alive because he was a guinea pig for a scientist's experiment on immortality. The Spirit works closely with the police, who thinks the masked one is losing control due to his obsession with the Octopus. There's also the fact that the Spirit seems to both put out and be extremely susceptible to pheromones, falling in love with every woman he meets. Yes, our hero isn't without his weakness and in his case, it is women. The Octopus is looking for the key to immortality and he needs to drink some of "Heracles blood" to seal the deal.

Take a breath. Did you get all that? The movie opens with The Angel of Death. Not the haunted visage of a skull under a dark cloak, but a hot half-naked woman. "I am Death, Denny Colt, you are the only one who has ever escaped my cold embrace," she says amid glittery light effects. A quick cut brings us to the outskirts of Central City where The Spirit is getting in a knock-em-down-pick-em-up fight with The Octopus. While watching the fight, I notice the pacing to be...different. A little off. Then the dialog doesn't improve. The Octopus hits The Spirit with giant wrenches and toilets and says "Come on! Toilets are ALWAYS funny!" and The Spirit hits The Octopus with kitchen sinks and says, "Well, I'll be learnin' you!" Sirens are going off in my head. I've heard that people walked out of this film. I couldn't do that, but I could see why.

So we have bad dialog, but what about the acting? Even factoring in what they are given, it's not good. Jackson is on the verge of being a comic book character no matter what film he does. Maybe he needs to take a break, do some stage, find himself. Here he not only chews the scenery but he regurgitates it out in out-of-control effect. The real downer is Gabriel Macht. He tries. He really does, but he acting is more reactionary, almost like he's acting how he thinks a comic book character should act, instead of acting in the moment. The rest of the cast either deliver their lines in slight embarrassment or overdone melodramatic ways. Eva Mendes slightly stands out, but compared to what everyone else is bringing,; that’s not saying much. As the movie went on, and on, I resigned myself to the fact that it wasn't going to get any better. Several plot points arose that never were resolved, inconsistencies that were never explained, and the images flew by on the screen in a jumbled mess. NOTE: I actually typed out several examples but after reading them I can't do that to you, the reader. I even confused myself reading it back. Plus, it would double the length of this review, and I think you've read everything you need to know already. I know some of you might be curious about the score by David Newman. Forgettable. I can't say I blame him, I wouldn't want to be remembered with this movie either.

Having been a fan of Will Eisner growing up I understand that the comic the movie is based on was played as light matter, even though the it touched on serious tones from time to time. Sight gags, goofy villains, outlandish scenarios. It was a comic book. How ironic that Frank Miller, the man who brought us grim-n-gritty with The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One, would attempt to update a crime noir hero in the same vein as his Sin City and end up with a silly wreck of a movie. Trying to cookie cut a story into a visual style rarely works. It makes me worry about Buck Rogers now that Miller has been attached to that project.

The 411: This movies has achieved an instant, and well deserved, notoriety. I would suggest that when this comes out on DVD, future filmmakers pick it up and watch it. If only to learn how to avoid the missteps of a well intentioned, but utter failing of a comic book movie. I picked a heck of a film to be my first movie review.

Final Score:  1.0   [ Extremely Horrendous ]