The Spirit

In the eyes of many, The Spirit is really Sin City 2, instead of a movie adaptation of a comic book that they've never heard of. I'm sure that when the executives at Lionsgate thought this, I know that I did when I saw the trailer and you probably did too. We were all wrong. Even though The Spirit was written and directed by Frank Miller, and has same quasi-black and white, CGI-heavy neo-noir visuals film, the equation The Spirit=Sin City doesn't quite work because the Lionsgate executives forgot to add "make a good movie" when they were putting together a to do list for The Sprit.

The Spirit is already ending up on many "Worst Movies of 2008" lists, and while those critics all have their reasons, I don't think it is quite that bad. I'm sure many of these reviewers were also expecting The Spirit to be just like Sin City.

Luckily, I went into this movie with the lowest-possible expectations, so when much of the movie was actually sort of decent, I was surprised. However, every time Samuel L. Jackson is on screen, the movie suddenly becomes violently stupid. It seems like Sammy J is playing a horrible Dave Chapelle "I'M SAMUEL L. JACKSON, DRINK, BITCH!" impression of himself. From scene to scene his costumes change from Pimp to Samurai to Nazi. This is probably supposed to be one of those so random it's funny things but I thought it was confusing more than anything else. If there had been someone to tell Frank Miller "no, that's a horrible idea" parts of the movie might have been saved. My theory is that they were drowning in the stupid and just gave in when they should have fought it. Case in point: Jackson's legions of bumbling henchmen.

These bald, besneakered bumpkins are so annoying that when Scarlett Johanson starts running them over in her truck I didn't cheer, I sighed in relief. Sadly Miller has them in unlimited supply and throws a couple on screen in each of Jackson's scenes, using them to make lame, cutesy jokes that he probably thinks are so clever that he probably deserves a medal.

When Sam Jackson and the Bumbles aren't on the screen, The Spirit really isn't that bad of a movie. The guy who plays The Spirit isn't terribly charismatic and his narration gets a little repetitive at times. The supporting characters aren't much to write home about, you've got some very attractive women presented beautifully and a fantastically hardboiled old cop who should have been in the movies in the 1940's. In one sequence younger versions of Eva Mendez and the Spirit are played by a couple of kids who generally outshine their older co-stars. That's usually not a good thing.

I guess if you can go into The Spirit with the lowest of all possible opinions, you might sort of enjoy parts of it. I saw it a week ago and the only part of it that I can remember are the really bad ones and when the joyless jerks in front of me shushed me during the previews. The trailer for the Wolverine movie was really good too.

Cost/benefit analysis: I payed a full $10 to see this movie. It wasn't so bad that I'm angry that I payed that much, but I still don't think it was worth it. This is a movie that I would watch when they've got it on cable on Sunday afternoons and you can switch to the football game when Eva Mendez isn't on the screen or something.