TheSpirit

The Spirit (2008)

The Spirit is the latest comic book to get the movie treatment. This lesser-known Will Eisner classic started as a daily strip in the 40s and stars the usual sharp-dressed masked vigilante type out to protect "his city." (One hero per city. That's the rules. Says so right in the vigilante handbook.)

Screenplay and directed by Frank Miller. Same over-the-top heavily stylized action from 300 and Sin City. Scarlet Johansson, Eva Mendes, and Sara Paulson. What could go wrong here?

Despite it all, it just didn't stand out. It had every element of an awesome movie, but none of it wanted to fall into place for me. For starters the story is incoherent. The plot is forced. (In an extended scene the main bad-guy, an eyeliner-wearing mad scientist gunslinger Nazi samurai named the Octopus, has to literally sit down with the Spirit and explain why the hell everything is happening.) The characters have very little depth, and the whole thing plays out like a series of neat storyboards were laid out and someone said, "Ok, these are cool looking. Now figure out how to write a story about this." It's a bunch of weak dialog and even weaker attempts at gag lines between comic book gimmicks presented in a really nice suit.

And I know the whole thing is supposed to be stylized and all, and maybe I'm just nitpicky here, but the solid, true red gash coming off his neck came off as more of a distraction than comic-book cool. They animated an entire cape made of rage and badass in Spawn and it worked, but the Spirit's CG tie annoyed the crap out of me.

But one thing made it all worth it...

Samuel L. Jackson.

Did I mention Samuel L. Jackson plays the gunslinger Nazi samurai? That also dabbles in mad science, and has a cool hat?

Samuel L. Jackson can make even the worst movies bearable. This is scientific fact. I'm sure if you sat down long enough you would find an equation that you can apply to any movie, wherein the amount of time Samuel L. Jackson is on screen is multiplied by the number of cheesy lines he gets to yell, then divided by the run-time of the film, then carry the one or something and you could come up with formula for awesome. You could film a dog taking a crap then follow it up with a clip of Jules from Pulp Fiction saying "This is some fucked-up repugnant shit" and you'd have a blockbuster hit, so long as you keep the run time under 12 seconds. (Anyone want to bet how fast that shows up on YouTube?)

The Spirit was a bit like "Snakes on a Plane" in that way. Mediocre interspaced with periods of Samuel L. Jackson. "Meh. Meh. Aww he's a bad muthafucka! Meh. Superfly TNT! Meh. Meh. Meh. Bitch be cool! Meh."

It wasn't good. Then again, it wasn't that bad, either... (or at least not compared to some of the absolutely dreadful films John has made me watch.)

1 ½ out of 4

reviewed by Jeremy Gaggins