The Spirit Movie Review

I was psyched to see this for a while...until I read some of the early reviews. Not good. But, still, it was a chance to get my comic geek on with my father and brother. I am happy to report that it wasn't nearly as bad as most critics made it out to be, but it was far from perfect, and not nearly as good as we wanted it to be. It was a bit of a mess, even though it never once stopped looking great! It was more Frank Miller than Will Eisner, which is a shame since Eisner's version was a great mix of humor and noir. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Frank Miller. I've been a fan since the old Daredevil days. As a result, I was really looking forward to this movie. My biggest problem was with the dialogue. Quite a bit of it was better suited for the printed comic book page than a movie screen. This wasn't as much an issue in Sin City because Robert Rodriguez knew enough to tweak it to better fit the screen. The Spirit really needed someone like him to come in and oversee that aspect. Another problem was the acting, which had more ham than a Deli. People who should have known better, like Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansen, couldn't resist the siren call of pork-laced thespianism under Miller's novice direction. I have heard a lot of criticism of the plot, which has been said to be hard to follow. It may have needed a bit of polish, but I had no problem keeping up. It was a typical Miller-style story, in my opinion.

The visual panache of this fine mess makes it rise above a failing grade to a nice solid C+.