The Spirit

The Spirit is based on the classic Will Eisner scribed comic of the same name. The original comic was innovative and creative, and influenced all comic writers and illustrators who came after. This film contains none of the positive characteristics of the original comic. There isn't one character that you care about in this dull and uninvolving film. The chief bad guy, The Octopus, played by Samuel L. Jackson, is characterized as the usual semi-psychotic bad guy that you'll often see in these type of films, only it just doesn't work here, unlike Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight. Mr. Jackson is a fine actor, so the fault can only lie, and it does, in a poorly written script, and mediocre direction. You never feel any real sense of danger when he's on screen. As far as Gabriel Macht, he does what he can playing a second rate Dark Knight as boy scout. It's not his fault either. This film was directed by Frank Miller, who also wrote and co-directed the much better Sin City, a film The Spirit tries to emulate in "spirit", unsuccessfully. I generally love this genre of film, and was really looking forward to it. A big disappointment.

Rating - 1 1/2 Stars