Geekshow

The Angry Projectionist – ‘The Spirit’

The Spirit – Comic classic on the screen, or just Sin City with a red tie?

I really had myself set up for disappointment when i got set up to screen a print of the new Frank Miller take on the Will Eisner classic, “The Spirit.”  But I have to say I was pleasantly surprised in that i was only somewhat disappointed.  While I didn’t absolutely hate the film, I didn’t exactly love it to death.

Now, I am a big fan of Frank miller’s style as a director.  It’s dark, It’s gritty, it’s violent, it’s everything the Spirit isn’t.  While The Spirit is a noir detective comic, it isn’t particularly dark.  It is a bit on the lighter side of the genre.  When I hear Miller was doing it I was immediately disappointed.  Because while i really like his style, I just don’t think it’s right for this project.

I felt that at times, Miller didn’t quite have a grasp on what kind of movie he was making.  There were times when it was lighter and joke driven, but there were also times where it was very dark and grizzly.  There were some over the top, ultra-violent fight scenes that Miller is known for, but at times, I really felt like i was just watching a live action cartoon.

This makes me a bit worried about the “Buck Rogers” film that Miller is rumored to be working on.  I really can’t picture a dark, Noir Buck Rogers.  Hopefully Miller has something new planned for such a project.

There were some points in the film where the acting made me want to throw vegetables at the screen.  The flashback scene with The Spirit and Sand Saref as children was especially hard to watch.  The girl they got to play young Sand was really hamming it up.  It was like a ninth grade play performance.  There were also some scenes with Samuel L jackson that made me a little upset (i.e. the octopus in a nazi colonel uniform…wft?)  Scarlet Johanson’s character also really bugged me at times.

As far as the plot and story go, I feel like it was missing an awful lot.  They seem to rush through a lot of the story and fail to fully explain some of the weirder elements of the story.  For example, how exactly does The Octopus have an endless stream of the same henchman.  While I’m always down with an endless supply of badguys, it was a little weird.  Also, the Octopus is supposed to be a master of disguise, and i really didn’t see that much at all.  In fact he was kind of hard to miss.

As much as it pains me to say this ‘The Spirit’ is a comic book film that is worth skipping.  It’s a shame.  I was really hoping they could do a good movie version of THE comic from the guy they name the award after that they give people for making great comics.  I guess we’ll have to wait a few years for the remake to surface.