Frank Miller co-directed Sin City with Robert Rodriguez, but The Spirit is all him. Miller uses the same visual EFX for this that was used in his movie versions of his own creations – 300 and Sin City. Sticking to that formula was not a bad idea, and may be the only good thing about this movie. It’s visually stunning, but that’s about it. The story, the acting, and the script all falls apart.
The movie is based off a comic book series about a cop who is resurrected and becomes The Spirit of Central City. His beloved city. His arch nemesis is Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson) who shares a lot in common with The Spirit. So, the story is pretty shallow. It is not as interesting or as well executed as Sin City. That’s a guarantee. Like Sin City, The Spirit has a good cast: Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes, Sarah Paulson, Jaime King, and Jackson.
There’s no doubt about it that Jackson is just having fun. He is over-the-top in every scene, but gives his signature wide-eyed stare every so often. But as the villain, he’s allowed some room to be wild. However, all of the women are underused big time. We all clearly see these are beautiful women, but give them a chance to show what they can do. This is where the script definitely fails because these actresses are never even given a chance to shine. They are there so you will be so engaged with their looks, you won’t pay attention to what they say.
Gabriel Macht plays the titled character. He is not very known, but you may remember him in a few movies. I know him from being in The Love Song for Bobby Long and he is very good in it. So there is proof he can act, but you would never know that from seeing this. He never comes off as being the hero. He is almost a womanizer who thinks he’s funny but is not. Oh he wears a red tie though. Some things seem cheesy while others just fail miserably. Thank goodness for Miller’s bright idea of using visual EFX because that is the only reason not to hate it.
“Nature Boy” Brandon Vick is the resident film critic of the SoBros Network, and star of Brandon’s Box Office In Your Mouth. Follow him on Twitter@SirBrandonV and be sure to search #VicksFlicks for all of his latest movie reviews.
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