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The Spirit
Denny Colt is shot dead, yet is brought back from the afterlife and uses his new abilities to fight the evil in Central City. First on his list, is The Octopus. No, not a giant Octopus that attacks the city, just an angry black man who has 8 of everything.
The Spirit is yet another comic book adaptation, this time it's Frank Miller behind the camera in his first solo effort. He was given a directing credit on Sin City, but after watching this film, I wonder how much influence he had on that one. He clearly shows that he doesn't have the knack for keeping an audience's attention or even entertained in the slightest. The Spirit is a mess of horrible acting, bad plotting and stale dialogue that will make you want to vomit. The fight scenes are horribly done and the film as a whole feels empty.
Where does this film succeed? Well, in two places. One it has a nude backside shot of Eva Mendes and two, it is visually pleasing to the eye. Yet these two things do not equal a good film. First, you need a story and this one is hastily thrown together that you never are given a chance to care. We are introduced to our main character, The Spirit as he runs across the rooftops monologuing about how he is in love with the city, his city. He saves a girl, beats up some bad guys and during the fight we discover he apparently cannot be killed. Hmm, that seems to take away all the dramatic tension one would need in any scene in which the hero might die.
The characters are ridiculous and over the top. I get this is a comic book, but it does not translate well to the screen. The Octopus is beyond camp and never seems like a real threat. Watching him fight in the opening scene is a joke and the use of the toilet and the toilet line solidified the fact that this whole film is a piece of crap. Why does this film such so badly? It's because Miller tried to recreate something that was not really his, Sin City part 2.
Sure, he did write the books and the visual styles, but it wasn't he who translated it to the big screen. I'm afraid that if it were Miller who took the reigns of that piece it would look like this. How many shots were directly ripped from that film? Does that style even belong with this film, since the source material is a lot brighter. Miller's dark and gritty tone doesn't really give with this piece, because it's too unrealistically funny. Had the film been more serious and dark, it might have turned out okay.
The women were pure eye candy, serving nothing to the film. The flashbacks that were used to fill in back-story could have been written by a monkey. Sand Saref is the girl from his flashbacks and she has an obsession with diamonds. So much that she goes looking for treasure and finds mythological artifacts, like Jason's golden Fleece and Hercules' blood. It's said that once you drink from Herc's blood you become a God. I don't see how that's any different than how these two characters are now. They never explain it. They just say become a God. They already can't die, but the story needs some kind of motivational piece for the characters to do their actions.
The dialogue is horribly bad. My ears are still bleeding from the wooden delivery of those lines too. Sam Jackson plays himself, in varied costumes. He says random lines about eggs about a dozen times. No significance, other than the fact that he doesn't like them. His henchmen are clones, they repeat inane things. In fact everyone does, this film has repetitious dialogue everywhere, it's annoying.
Yes, it looks nice, but it isn't. It comes off as that loser brother of the popular kid. The popular kid being Sin City. Miller's Spirit is something that I could have done without and you can too.
Denny Colt is shot dead, yet is brought back from the afterlife and uses his new abilities to fight the evil in Central City. First on his list, is The Octopus. No, not a giant Octopus that attacks the city, just an angry black man who has 8 of everything.
The Spirit is yet another comic book adaptation, this time it's Frank Miller behind the camera in his first solo effort. He was given a directing credit on Sin City, but after watching this film, I wonder how much influence he had on that one. He clearly shows that he doesn't have the knack for keeping an audience's attention or even entertained in the slightest. The Spirit is a mess of horrible acting, bad plotting and stale dialogue that will make you want to vomit. The fight scenes are horribly done and the film as a whole feels empty.
Where does this film succeed? Well, in two places. One it has a nude backside shot of Eva Mendes and two, it is visually pleasing to the eye. Yet these two things do not equal a good film. First, you need a story and this one is hastily thrown together that you never are given a chance to care. We are introduced to our main character, The Spirit as he runs across the rooftops monologuing about how he is in love with the city, his city. He saves a girl, beats up some bad guys and during the fight we discover he apparently cannot be killed. Hmm, that seems to take away all the dramatic tension one would need in any scene in which the hero might die.
The characters are ridiculous and over the top. I get this is a comic book, but it does not translate well to the screen. The Octopus is beyond camp and never seems like a real threat. Watching him fight in the opening scene is a joke and the use of the toilet and the toilet line solidified the fact that this whole film is a piece of crap. Why does this film such so badly? It's because Miller tried to recreate something that was not really his, Sin City part 2.
Sure, he did write the books and the visual styles, but it wasn't he who translated it to the big screen. I'm afraid that if it were Miller who took the reigns of that piece it would look like this. How many shots were directly ripped from that film? Does that style even belong with this film, since the source material is a lot brighter. Miller's dark and gritty tone doesn't really give with this piece, because it's too unrealistically funny. Had the film been more serious and dark, it might have turned out okay.
The women were pure eye candy, serving nothing to the film. The flashbacks that were used to fill in back-story could have been written by a monkey. Sand Saref is the girl from his flashbacks and she has an obsession with diamonds. So much that she goes looking for treasure and finds mythological artifacts, like Jason's golden Fleece and Hercules' blood. It's said that once you drink from Herc's blood you become a God. I don't see how that's any different than how these two characters are now. They never explain it. They just say become a God. They already can't die, but the story needs some kind of motivational piece for the characters to do their actions.
The dialogue is horribly bad. My ears are still bleeding from the wooden delivery of those lines too. Sam Jackson plays himself, in varied costumes. He says random lines about eggs about a dozen times. No significance, other than the fact that he doesn't like them. His henchmen are clones, they repeat inane things. In fact everyone does, this film has repetitious dialogue everywhere, it's annoying.
Yes, it looks nice, but it isn't. It comes off as that loser brother of the popular kid. The popular kid being Sin City. Miller's Spirit is something that I could have done without and you can too.