Film Review: The Spirit

The Spirit @ IMDB

Frank Miller is a funny old sort. A giant in the comics field, he reinvigorated Daredevil and then redefined Batman. And then he went nuts.

I'm getting ahead of myself. Frank Miller and Hollywood didn't have a great start to their relationship. He wrote the script for RoboCop 2 which was gutted by the studio and drove him away from that industry. Which made Sin City, the film he co-directed based on his series of comics, such a surprise. It took the hard boiled comic book milieu developed by Miller and made it a visually stunning and influential movie.

This, then, is Miller's solo debut. He has taken the character of The Spirit, created by comic legend Will Eisner, and reimagined it. The Spirit is an ex-cop who was shot, died and came back to life. He now defends his city and tries to find out exactly what he is.

Basically? Sin City 1.5.

That shouldn't be a bad thing but the problem here, which is a problem with a lot of Miller's work, is the tone. Sin City, for all it's gruff noir craziness, plays it mostly straight. Sure you get characters that do things that are way over the top but at it's core it's a straight noir.

But The Spirit goes off the deep end. It's meant to be superhero noir but when you get characters literally hitting each other with the kitchen sink it's becomes something else entirely.

Gabriel Macht, as the Spirit, gets the idea. He's all gruff and bluster and not an issue there. We also have a raft of femme fatales thrown at the screen with various degrees of success. The problem here is that none of them really get a chance to breathe, a couple could have been trimmed and the film wouldn't have suffered.

And then there is Samuel L Jackson. He is The Octopus, The Spirit's arch nemesis.

HE.

IS.

MENTAL.

Proper, off the deep end, mental. Insane. It's such a bizarre crazy role. But it doesn't belong in this film, to be honest I'm not sure where it belongs but it's not here. It should almost be in a film by itself.

And that's the problem; the film is a great mix of ideas that don't really gel. The voiceovers drag down the pace, the flashbacks to The Spirit's youth drag it down even more. It's a shame because when the film works it's great. It needed someone like Robert Rodriguez there to keep the film on track, like with Sin City.

Close but no cigar.

In a word? Mental.

They snuck that one out.

The teaser for The Spirit film has been released.

Might not be on your radar, but considering it's written and directed by Frank "300, Sin City" Miller is probably should be.