The Spirit (2008)

Among comic book fans, there are certain writers and artists that are held in very high esteem. People like Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko are all cited as important figures within the industry. But few are as respected as Will Eisner. Eisner began his career as a cartoonist in the 1930s, and as the years rolled by, he would become one of comicdom's most influential creators. The industry's version of the Oscars are even named the Eisner Awards in his honor. But for all his contributions, perhaps his most famous is "The Spirit."

A do-gooder whose stories combined heroics, crime stories, and noir, The Spirit made his first appearance in a special supplement in newspapers published by the Register and Tribune Syndicate on June 2, 1940. This supplement ran until 1952, and The Spirit has appeared in more traditional comic books ever since, having called DC Comics home for the last several years. Although the character isn't exactly among the A-list comic book characters that have earned widespread mainstream recognition, The Spirit is a character that has managed to endure.

The Spirit finally managed to venture into Hollywood on Christmas Day in 2008, after spending nearly seventy years on the printed page. But despite having famed comic book writer and artist Frank Miller at the helm and a few big name actors in the cast, the movie ended up being a pretty resounding flop at the American box office. I'm pretty sure there's a good reason for that, too.

There once was an ambitious police officer named Denny Colt (Gabriel Macht). Presumed to have been killed on the job, Colt was mysteriously reborn with an uncanny ability to quickly recover from any injury, no matter how grievous. He now exists as "The Spirit," a masked vigilante determined to protect his beloved hometown of Central City.

Unfortunately, doing so will not be easy. The Spirit must contend with the villainous Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson). The Octopus's latest plan: to obtain a Greek amphora that supposedly contains the blood of Heracles, which is rumored to grant immortality. As The Spirit follows the trail of his arch-nemesis, he soon crosses paths with Sand Saref (Eva Mendes), an old flame who became an international thief after they parted ways and is also after Heracles's blood. The Spirit is forced to deal with problems from all sides if he wishes to successfully stop The Octopus.

If you want to know why The Spirit bombed at the box office, I'll tell you: the movie collapsed under the weight of its own stupidity. It's one of those movies where things keep happening for no reason other than to fill the time between the opening and closing credits. There's no particular rhyme or reason to any of it. It merely exists for the sake of existing.

The movie honestly feels like Frank Miller was trying to do a really bad parody of himself. Nearly all of the elements are there: the movie is shot in a style similar to Sin City, the heroes are hardboiled, the villains are over-the-top, the women are either femme fatales or sex objects, and the dialogue is trying way too hard to be snappy. The only thing he left out were prostitutes.

As a director, Miller is adequate, I guess. I mean, he isn't horrible, but his inexperience is evident. But The Spirit marks only his second directorial effort and his first venture into filmmaking by himself, so I guess that's to be expected.

Like I said, Miller chose to use the same visual style that he and Robert Rodriguez employed with Sin City, something I felt was off-putting. I mean, yeah, it worked wonders for Sin City. That was an awesome movie. But the same cannot be said for The Spirit. The style feels forced and just plain contrived. There's no real reason for it. To be perfectly honest, I thought it would have worked better had Miller ripped off Dick Tracy instead. That would have made The Spirit a lot cooler, if you ask me.

Miller also handled the writing duties and like a lot of his recent comic books, he left a lot to be desired. As I said before, it feels as if Miller was doing a parody of himself. The pseudo-noir dialogue is really cheesy, there's practically no character development at all, and the movie in general is pretty much nonsensical. Each scene feels like its own thing.

I mean, the whole thing is utterly preposterous. Why do Octopus and his sidekick keep showing up in different wacky costumes? What's with that whole bit where they're decked out in Nazi regalia and look as if they were doing a Third Reich version of the opening scene of Patton? Did the movie need a belly dancer named "Plaster of Paris" that badly? Why is this movie so chock full of nonsense? Why?!

And I can't say that I understand the inclusion of the character played by Jaime King. King plays a siren-like personification of death that repeatedly calls out to The Spirit. These scenes didn't really serve any sort of greater purpose that I could see, beyond padding the movie time. They don't really add anything to the movie, and perhaps would have been better had they been left on the cutting room floor.

Miller's screenplay also includes some of the dumbest things I've ever seen in a movie. For example, look at Octopus's gaggle of cloned goons (all played by Louis Lombardi). They're supposed to be comic relief, but there's nothing really funny about them. Miller's dialogue isn't that good either, with tired jokes and dumb one-liners that try to be cool and aren't. It's a shame, really. I mean, wasn't Frank Miller a good writer at one point? What happened?

The cast is watchable, but even the best actors couldn't elevate this material. It feels like they're slowly being dragged down into the mire even while they're trying their hardest. Gabriel Macht puts forth a silly yet amusing performances as our titular hero. Given the way the character is written, it's kinda hard to take Macht seriously. But you know what He's a real trooper. He's fun and entertaining in spite of how stupid the movie gets sometimes, and it's actually a little bit better because of it.

As our villain, Samuel L. Jackson would have won the gold medal if overacting were an Olympic sport. Imagine the most over-the-top, outrageously hammy performance you've ever seen. Jackson runs circles around that in The Spirit. I mean, it's insane. Granted, practically every scene he's in involves something ludicrous, but Jackson cranks the lunacy up to eleven.

Playing Octopus's sidekick, the lovely femme fatale Silken Floss, is Scarlet Johannson. I can't say I was particularly impressed with her performance. Johannson's line deliveries were droll nearly to the point of being wooden, which only leaves her looks as a reason to pay attention to her.

The last of the movie's primary cast is Eva Mendes, who I didn't really care for either. Mendes's problem is that I felt she was simply trying too hard. She was trying to hard to be the cool, cunning sex kitten that she nearly became overbearing. After a certain point, I was just hoping the movie would just forget she was in it and go back to being goofy.

The Spirit is not a good movie. It's actually pretty bad. But it's oddly charming, too. I don't quite know why, but the movie is so dumb, so unrelentingly, unapologetically bizarre, that I can't say I hate it. The truth is, as bad movies go, The Spirit is actually pretty fun. Dumb fun, but fun nonetheless. Oh, and Mr. Miller? If you so desperately wanted to make a comic book movie, I'd have rather you called Robert Rodriguez and made Sin City 2 instead. I'm just saying.

Final Rating: **