Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Beautiful, moving film.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

An attempt to join noir to kitsch which doesn't succeed.Some interesting photography, but it too goes overboard sometimes. I gave it an extra point for attempt. Too bad such a heavily budgeted movie couldn't come up with something better. The (comic) book was better than the movie.

The Spirit(2008) Starring: Gabriel Macht, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Eva Mendes, Paz Vega, Jaime King, Dan Lauria, Sarah Paulson, Stana Katic, Frank Miller, and Eric Balfour Directed By: Frank Miller Review I'm gonna kill you all kinds of dead. This is not just the worst comic book movie ever made.This is one of the worst films I have ever seen.The Syle was very unnecessary it does nothing to service the characters, nothing to service the plot, service the story, it does nothing but be a distraction from the fact that the film has nothing to offer. That's all it does and it pisses me off because of all the great things I hear about Sin City(2005). Heck this style could easily work for a freaking Batman movie. But for this it did nothing except made a mockery of how ingenious that style was on film. Frank Miller just looked a t Robert Rodriguez and smacked him in the face with his penis. The writing is so terrible and it was said in a review that Frank Miller can not write women unless their freaking whores, and its so freaking true. Unless their dressed in like a slutty fashion or being sluts their is nothing their. Because every damn women in this movie is made to be eye candy. Even Eva Mendes who they try to pas off as a bad ass assassin and they use her for eye candy every two seconds. And I can't take it seriously. The acting in the movie is beyond, beyond,beyond atrocious and Samuel L. Jackson Oh my God. Sam Jackson is so terrible in this I mean his delivery for his shitty dialogue is atrocious. You want to know how lame the action scenes are in this movie. You ever heard the phrase they threw everything but the kitchen sink, Samuel L. Jackson throws a freaking kitchen sink at The Spirit in this movie. He throws a kitchen sink. Frank Miller a man who has given me my favorite version of Daredevil and the freaking Dark Knight returns, he gave you Sin City! This man is such a talented writer I do understand that this is first screenplay but this man has been writing comics for years and believe it or not but their is not much difference in writing a screenplay for a comic book and a movie. So he has no excuse their. I freaking hated this movie I'm giving the Spirit a half out of five.

The Spirit...good lord The Spirit; talk about an irredeemable mess of a film. Made with the sole intention of cashing in on the Frank Miller led success of Sin City (2005), The Spirit is an ugly, sophomoric and downright bizarre answer to the question what would Samuel L. Jackson do for a paycheck. Based on a long-running newsprint comic turned pulpy graphic novel, The Spirit is actually a masked vigilante who seems to be in a constant battle with The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson) for the heart of Central City. There's a story about a stolen serum, some garbled garbage involving a bevy of femme fatales and various on-the- nose references to Greek mythology.As for the Spirit, Gabriel Macht, previously known for his performance as "the guy that died first" in Behind Enemy Lines (2001) is easily the most bland graphic novel hero ever committed to film. The man is but a wisp in comparison to Samuel L. Jackson who goes full diva complete with a constantly changing wardrobe that includes the level subtlety of a Nazi SS uniform.It's all pretty standard as far as cloying movies go but what sets it apart is the drab set design, fanatically over-the-top performances and ludicrously thin noir pastiche job. It's as if the makers of this film were trying to meld divergent parts of The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Tom and Jerry (1940-1958) without bothering to capture the spirit of either. Grotesque, confusing and garish, the film story-wise is just bland and forgettable.

...and remove EVERY single aspect that was good about that movie. The ultra-violence, the decent actors, the cool dialogue, the action-heavy story lines. Replace them with a lame, insipid, kid-friendly retread of the same kind of comic book film and you have THE SPIRIT, one of the absolute worst Hollywood movies I've witnessed in a while.Sure, Frank Miller was efficient at writing and creating violent comic books and as working on a producer on various adaptations of his work like SIN CITY and 300, but what on earth possessed him in thinking he could make it as a director? THE SPIRIT is the absolute pits and a definite low in the careers of all involved.Gone is the multi-layered narrative of SIN CITY, in which various sub-plots merged and came to successful fruition as the plotting progressed, to be replaced by the simple story of a crime fighter, a drug overlord and the former's desire for revenge on the latter. The 'look' and style of the film is a carbon copy of the 'look' and style of SIN CITY, except without the novelty value, so it's boring by now.Even worse, the actors in this were encouraged to go completely over the top (it is, you know, a comic book story after all). So we get some of the most horrendous performances ever. Samuel L. Jackson is the worst offender, I felt acutely embarrassed for him every time he appears on screen. Scarlet Johansson is also very bad, although I'd expect no better from Eva Mendes who appears as window dressing only. As the hero, Gabriel Macht is so charisma-free that he made no impression on me whatsoever.