Review: ‘The Spirit’

Michelle:

Based on the 1940’s comic book series from Will Eisner’s, our, born-died-reborn hero,‘The Spirit’ is former cop Denny Colt (Gabriel Macht) trying to protect his beloved Central City from every threat. His nemesis, Octopus, (Sam Jackson), is gonna put the big hurt on the ever-snowing  city while becoming immortal. Jackson loves the scenes he’s in – chews em up. His beautiful, chilly sidekick Silken Floss (Scarlett Johansson) just looks plain bored. And Denny’s first girlfriend, Sand Serif (Eva Mendes) is thrown into the mix as jewel thief trying to steal a special “something” away from Octopus.

From the creator of ‘Sin City’ and ‘300′, Frank Miller’s use of monochromatic, sepia tones of Central City is top notch. This comic book look  has Miller’s typical stylish violence, with lots of red, especially Spirit’s neck-tie. It all overwhelmingly permeates thru the screen. However, there’s no real depth to the characters, but a lot of references to greek mythology in the boring script. And in the mix is a  dash of the Arthurian legend – a Lady in the Lake character, aka “Death” Lorelei (Jamie King). At the end, I walked out thinking to myself, WTF was that???

As its Frank Miller’s first time in the director’s chair, did  Lionsgate really think he knew what he was doing? Bet someone’s ass is in a sling now for this new level of awful. Keep Miller away from ‘Buck Rogers’…please!  While we wait for ‘Sin City 2′, it’s not exactly the quick fix for fans of Miller’s previous creations. Like ‘The Spirit’ its disappointing, dead, and just lame.

[Overall:Â  1 stars out of 5]