The Spirit (2008)

When The Spirit hit theaters back in Christmas of 2008, the reviews weren’t kind; in fact, they were downright brutal. But critics can be a fickle lot, so I decided to view The Sprit on DVD and give it a chance; after all, we’re talking about a movie written and directed by Frank Miller, the man responsible for the comics-turned-movies 300 and Sin City.

The critics were right.

The Spirit isn’t just a bad movie; it’s a downright embarrassment. With a respectable budget and better-than-average cast, the film should’ve at least managed to be mediocre. Instead, it sets new lows in almost every possible area save two: beautiful women and the highly-stylized look of the film.

While I’m eager to pillory the guilty parties, let’s pause for a moment and take a look at what passes for the plot of The Spirit. Set in the noirish Central City, Denny Colt (Gabriel Macht) is an honest cop who returns from the dead after being gunned down in the line of duty. Becoming The Spirit, he defends the city with a mixture of regeneration, brawling, and the ability to make members of the opposite sex all weak in the knees. His sworn nemesis, The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson), is on the loose, and he’s looking for the Blood of Heracles to make himself immortal; meanwhile, an old flame named Sand Saref (Eva Mendes) has returned to town to further complicate our hero’s life.

In-between clumsy scene transitions and hackneyed dialogue, The Spirit also encounters a number of beauties including: Silken Floss (Scarlett Johansson), scientist and assistant to The Octopus; Ellen Dolan (Sarah Paulson), daughter of the police commissioner and former girlfriend of Denny Colt; Morgenstern (Stana Katic), a rookie police officer and sharpshooter; Lorelei (Jaime King), an angel of death; and Plaster of Paris (Paz Vega), a French assassin with a mastery of bladed weapons.

Now let the lambasting begin.

I place the majority of the blame on Frank Miller; he’s a rookie director and it shows. Sure, he was given a co-director credit on Sin City, but I believe Robert Rodriguez was just feeling generous after lifting a number of shots straight from his comics. If this is what we can expect from Miller the director, I’m very skeptical about his future in the industry.

A more experienced director would’ve also been able to coax better performances from his cast. Instead, it all looks to have been done in one take. Scarlet Johansson is especially listless in her role, and Samuel L. Jackson sets new standards for overacting (which is really saying something). With nothing more than a green screen and equally green director to work with, it’s probably a miracle that it wasn’t worse.

And things aren’t looking much better for Frank Miller the screenwriter. He litters the script with the same sort of hard-boiled dialogue you’d find in Sin City, but here it proves more of a hindrance than a strength. Characters live and die with the thinnest of motivations, and The Spirit’s constant narration about “the city” becomes laughably grating.

The film is beautiful to behold, both for the digitally rendered backgrounds and the bevy of well-proportioned actresses. Eva Mendes looks to have been poured into her outfits, and that sight was one of the few things which kept me going during the 102 minute runtime. Still, that’s hardly a reason to recommend the film; Mendes has also looked great in a number of movies which didn’t completely stink.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that The Spirit was created by the late Will Eisner, a legend in the comic book industry. The character first appeared in 1940 and is still active in a series from DC Comics. Throughout its history, The Spirit has been known for interesting characters, genre-bending adventure, and well-written stories: too bad the movie version contains none of the above.