The Spirit
December 24, 2008
Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 103 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
The Spirit was Wil Eisner’s superhero comic strip that ran in Sunday newspapers between 1940 and 1952. There have been various reprints and revivals in the decades since.
Now comes a movie that feels a lot more like Frank Miller’s stuff than Wil Eisner’s, because Frank Miller wrote and directed it.
The feel of it is something like The Shadow or any number of other pulp superheroes. It looks a bit like Sin City and 300, using similar cinematic techniques.
The Spirit lives in a future-noir city, where it could be the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, or 1950s, but they’ve got an Internet (somebody mentions going Online) and cell-phones.
He’s a bit of a mystery. His main power seems to be that he’s fairly indestructible.
His nemesis is The Octopus (Samuel Jackson), who’s a Bad Mother. He’s working on an Elixir of External Life (Well, who isn’t) and has a bunch of identical henchmen who embody that trait that The Monarch’s Henchmen on The Venture Bros. exhibit: Just the right mix of expendable and indestructible.
The Spirit meets more femme fatales in five minutes than most superheroes meet in twelve issues, seemingly. They’re drawn to him like moths to a flame, and vice versa. He’s quite the p-hound. They include The Octopus’s right-hand woman Silken Floss (Scarlett Johannson), Eve Mendes as Sand Sarif, Sarah Paulson as Dr. Helen Dolan (the police chief’s daughter and The Spirit’s main girl, but she has to wait in line), Jaime King as Lorelei Rox, Paz Vega as Plaster of Paris, and Meeghan Holaway as Holly the cop.
I’ve never read the comics, but this doesn’t really seem to capture the look of the original comics like, for example, Dick Tracy did.
And it’s surprisingly risque considering the source material. Frank Miller’s doing, no doubt. And I’m surprised this just got a PG-13 rating due to the violence.
I suspect purist fans of the comic will be scandalized.
But this is a good fun comic book romp. It looks rather like the world of Sin City, but less nihilistic.
I’m giving this 4, count ‘em 4, stars, but with a caveat: If Sin City and 300 left you flat, this probably isn’t going to change your mind on this type of comic book movie-making.
Popularity: 59% [?]
Seen it? How many stars do you give it?
(5 votes, average: 3 out of 5)
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His relationship with women kind of reminded me of James Coburn in In Like Flint, except Flint was cool and in control, while The Spirit seems to be totally enslaved by his gonads.
I am also surprised by the rating. The violence is profound, kind of like if Claire on Heroes met up with a real sadist and they fell in love.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen IN LIKE FLINT or OUR MAN FLINT all the way through, though I remember one with a finale involving one of those huge 1960s European hovercraft with the big rubber skirt.
That seems to be a staple in James Bond-ish movies, the head villain needs to have a hovercraft-or-hydrofoil-type vehicle, a mere boat Just Won’t Do (like in THUNDERBALL).
As referenced on THE SIMPSONS episode “Kamp Krusty”, when the villainous head of a summer camp is making the kids do sweatshop work, when he’s found out, he tries to make his escape and yells to his minions,”Quick! To the hydrofoil!”