Gamertell

Title: The Spirit
Release Date: December 25, 2008
Company: Lionsgate
Rating: PG-13
Pros: A couple good performances, some nice visual elements and interesting mix of genres. Definitely Frank Miller’s take on a Will Eisner creation.
Cons: Too many disparate, inconsistent and conflicting elements. Several bad performances, choppy dialog, overuse of monologues and exposition visuals. Definitely Frank Miller’s take on a Will Eisner creation.
Overall Score: Two thumbs sideways; 73; C; * * out of five.

Frank Miller, known for dark, gritty and uniquely visual creations can seemingly do no wrong. Sin City and 300 were visual amazements that fans loved and pretty much secured him as the man to do graphic-novel-to-film adaptations. Until The Spirit, that is.

Miller’s grit may be good but it’s not really part of the original character and results in some rather confusing and inconsistent plot elements, performances and themes.

Nice Tie

The Spirit is a masked super hero style crime fighter who was previously a police detective named Denny Colt. Due to strange circumstances, Colt cannot be killed and takes on the simply masked persona of The Spirit, saving (and wooing) ladies while jibing at outlandish villains. The character was created by Will Eisner in the late 1930s and ran in one form or another until 1952 with resurrections pretty much every decade since.

In the film, Spirit (Gabriel Macht) is a bit darker and a lot less happy than the comic, donning a dark suit and trademark red tie, surfing along telephone wires and nimbly leaping from the narrowest of ledges. The main nemesis of the film is Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson), a mad, ego-maniacal scientist who “has eight of everything” and his smart,  “sexy” and sarcastic sidekick, Silken Floss (Scarlett Johansson).

Octopus is once again causing problems in Central City, killing cops, citizens and minions to capture a box but, instead, gets a box with mysterious glowing contents (sound familiar?). That leads to one of Colt’s childhood crush, Sand Serif (Eva Mendes), who has turned into a master burglar.

What Year is This Again?

Although the movie often looks amazing, it flip-flops between era and genres creating artistic inconsistencies that seriously disrupt the film’s flow. Most of the film has that Frank Miller’s Sin City aesthetic with black-and-white scenes highlighted by an element in a single color (usually Spirit’s red tie). Even that is inconsistent as the movie switches back to flesh tones and more familiar film faire, unexpectedly returning to tri-chromatic comic book panel homages.

Many elements also skip between decades including clothing, dialog, hair styles, clothing and plot elements with modern weapons and cell phones to keep you even more decade-ly confused. While Eisner’s comic was known to toy with various genres, the movie cannot reconcile transitions between its genre-switching moments going from a kung-fu feeling in a few fights to an abrupt and misplaced Western film montage that is as quickly abandoned, only to be awkwardly resurrected a few scenes later.

Other themes have similar moments of doldrums, such as Spirit’s seemingly magical allure to all women that is over addressed for several minutes to justify it being brought back later as a quick plot fix. None of these themes fit well with the film’s overall pulp crime vibe that could have been wonderful if it were consistently maintained well enough to make the thematic dalliances enjoyable.

As for Spirit’s humor, even if you never knew he had a sense of humor, this Spirit is simply too cranky and bitter to enjoy anything. There are a few dark attempts at comedy that spawn from the Jackson-Johansson team but those more often fall flat than float. Johansson’s talents are completely misdirected in this movie, leaving her obviously walking between tape marks on the floor and simply reciting lines instead of developing into a real or interesting character. Likewise, Mendes’ Serif may be terribly sexy on screen but her acting is simply terrible (as is her teenage counterpart Seychelle Gabriel, which may actually reflect good casting).

On the more positive side, Macht manages to offer many decent acting moments but is unfortunately forced to chat with a cat to deliver redundant exposition (that I really hope is edited out of the final release of the film). Also, Louis Lombardi plays the perfect doofus minion ad nauseam and Dan Lauria as Commissioner Dolan may have been born to play pulp-era cop.

When Miller sticks to a theme for more than a few minutes it starts to work. Spirit’s skyscraper surfing, which you primarily see at the beginning and end of the film, do look good but then little things poke through like body positioning that make it obvious where wires were located and an overly animated tie that is more distracting than an artistic highlight.

Fans Beware

This movie, much like many local comic shops, has much more Miller in it than Eisner.

Miller tried a little too hard to twist the semi-silly urban hero into his own image, creating a film that is inconsistent in visual style, acting and story. So many performances vary from piss poor to decent that you have to wonder if Miller has finally reached is directorial limit and exhausted his comic-to-silver-screen talents (or perhaps he should stick to translating his own works). He clearly could not handle Johansson’s talent and turned Spirit into a serious, brooding vigilante instead of letting a little more wackiness come through.

Eisner fans will be disappointed with the character’s new dark side, cranky exposition-filled monologues and the choppy story. Miller fans will enjoy the visual effects, the photocopier and a few other funny elements but leave a bit confused by the overall theme (but really enjoy looking at the credits). Everyone else will likely wonder why they bothered leaving the house for such a weird movie.

Read [Gamertell] Site [The Spirit] Site [Will Eisner]