Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases

Updates:

The Spirit (2008)

Director: Frank Miller

Time Out rating

Average user rating

30 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

For all the grumbling about the state of modern cinema, Hollywood tends to get it right a fair percentage of the time: however crass, noisy and infantile the average blockbuster may be, they also tend to be entertaining, escapist and efficient. But every once in a while a genuine turkey escapes the coop, bereft of charm or wit, utterly lacking in technical prowess, integrity or intelligence. ‘The Spirit’ is such a film.

Adapting from his mentor Will Eisner’s much loved superhero strip, writer-director Frank Miller flies solo for the first time following his debut partnering Robert Rodriguez on the crude, overhyped fanboy favourite ‘Sin City’. ‘The Spirit’ is clearly cut from the same cloth, utilising the same headache-inducing, ripped-from-the-page graphic style and employing a similar cast of grim heroes, outrageous supervillains and scantily clad, largely interchangeable women.

The story, such as it is, unfolds in the battered urban landscape of Central City, where the eponymous indestructible crimefighter (unremarkable newcomer Gabriel Macht) and his jocular nemesis The Octopus (Samuel L Jackson) struggle for possession of a vase containing the blood of Greek demigod Hercules, abetted by a parade of hapless lovelies: Eva Mendes’s self absorbed jewel thief Sand Serif, Sarah Paulson’s drab nice girl Ellen and Scarlett Johanssen in a thankless, irrelevant role as evil sidekick Silken Floss.

Miller directs with stunning ineptitude, shooting entire scenes in close-up without ever establishing the location, flashing from monochrome to colour without warning or reason, keeping his action sequences as perfunctory as possible to make way for endless, excruciating scenes of exposition. His work as a writer is, if anything, even worse, throwing in pretentious, portentous voiceovers, hammy gold-tinted flashbacks and repeated attempts at slapstick and comic wordplay which, without exception, fall deadeningly flat. A few scenes – such as the one where Jackson and Johanssen dress up as Nazis for no apparent reason – threaten to spill over into outright drug-induced camp, but Miller lacks the imagination to take them beyond simply bizarre and annoying.

In the world of graphic novels, Frank Miller is king: a fine visual storyteller with an unimpeachable canon. Let’s hope ‘The Spirit’ puts an end to his moviemaking ambitions before that impressive record is irrevocably besmirched.

Author: Tom Huddleston 2009-01-02 14:42:29

Time Out London Issue 2002, Jan 1-7, 2009

Bookmark

User reviews of this film

Tom said...

Posted on Jan 08 2009 13:37 This is an awful attempt at film making.
The movie is let down by a poor script, bad comedy, poor cinematography and title.
All I can say is that I am glad that I went to see this on Orange Wednesday, because if I had paid full price to see this awful film I would have been fuming.
If you are expecting to see anything comparitive to his earlier works of Sin City, think again.
From the annoying fat men repeating "We was watchin" (I wanted to pull my fingernails off after 5 minutes of that) to the ridiculous character played by the normally wonderful Scarlett Johannson.
This is hopefully the worst film I will see this year, because if they get any worse....

Report as inappropriate
watty said...

Posted on Jan 08 2009 07:48 first up for the people who did not like it, if you saw sin city you must have know what you would get. if you did not like sin city why go.i think everyone knows it was not getting nominated for an oscar,its just a fun film with some over the top acting,which is fine with me as i never expected anything less maybe thats why i enjoyed it.so next time guys look at the other films by miller then you will know what to expect

Report as inappropriate
James said...

Posted on Jan 06 2009 21:38 All of the above should lighten up, guessing they never got what they wanted from santa or something... I thought the film was very good, quirky, fun and well worth the ticket price. I had no expectations and never knew of the spirit prior to entering the cinema. The acting was good, Scarlet and Samuel, are almost worth investing in a over priced box of popcorn to assist in savouring their on screen action. The relationship they have is a load of fun. It's characature, and James gives it a wooohooo 5 out of 5.

Report as inappropriate
debbie said...

Posted on Jan 06 2009 15:58 why the hell did I put myself through this? I want my 1 hour 40 mins of my life and money back, please. There is no words to describe how utter pants this movie was I wish I had stayed at home and watched tv it would have been a wiser move. dont bother seeing this film if you value your life because you will hate yourself for wasting your time......TOTAL CRAP.

Report as inappropriate
steph said...

Posted on Jan 06 2009 15:52 I felt like hitting the person next to me just for entertainment and to give me something to do other than walk out this has to be the worst film in human history...I use to enjoy the comic books but this is tradgic don't waste your money or your time seeing this its not even worth the star rating

Report as inappropriate
john taylor said...

Posted on Jan 06 2009 04:21 i agree with all the comments about how bad this film was.the only good things was that i walked out after 20 minutes and was therefore spared even further pain

Report as inappropriate
Mike said...

Posted on Jan 05 2009 20:59 This was the worst film I have ever sat down to watch - The plot is bewildering, the lack of flow just plain annoying and the flip between the realistic and unrealistic is just that - completely unrealistic! I struggle to see how anyone could be sucked into this film and walk away with anything other than a deep desire for 1 hour and 40 minutes of their life back.

Report as inappropriate
Londoncat said...

Posted on Jan 05 2009 17:29 I didn't have high expectations of this film but it was still probably the worse thing i have ever seen! I never walk out of the cinema, but i did out of this one after about half an hour. A waste of time and money....

Report as inappropriate
Madison said...

Posted on Jan 05 2009 12:06 i fell asleep in the cinema watching this! there was nothing remarkeable about the bit i saw. i do like the line "im gonna kill you all kinds of dead" though,.

Report as inappropriate
john said...

Posted on Jan 04 2009 17:39 Possibly the worst piece of unmitigated crap i have ever seen. I can not stress enough how bad this is. Camp, stupid, predictable, childish(and not in a good way). imagine the cast of sin city replaced with the cast of im a celebrity and forced to to chucklebrother sketches. BAD, BAD , BAD!!!!

Report as inappropriate
notalotofdosh said...

Posted on Jan 04 2009 15:30 one word - simple (no not that word, this one...) CRAP!! Two words utter Crap. Three words - Complete utter crap. Four words - not worth the breath!!!

Report as inappropriate
chris said...

Posted on Jan 04 2009 11:10 I'll second that. This is the worst film i have ever seen, i loved sin city and 300 so i was really excited to see this film. To my disappointment i was extremely let down, i nearly fell asleep 4 times and was seriously contemplating walking out which i have never done for a movie in my life. The storyline was totally pointless, the characters and tone of voice of the film were just irratating beyond belief, and enough with the woman thing. Total waste of an hour and 40 minutes of my life which i will never get back! DON'T GO TO SEE THIS FILM!

Report as inappropriate
usman khawaja said...

Posted on Jan 03 2009 23:33 the foulest most disgusting spirit that almighty ever created -in fact it was not the lord but hollywood who should be made to see this utter crap for the whole of next year .
the worst movie ever made with a title to match and this spirit needs to be immediately excommunicated .
its bad beyond words
if you want to preserve your spirit -drink a can of sprite -it will be a mercy compared to this slag
no stars at all
not even one or a half

Report as inappropriate
M McKinnon said...

Posted on Jan 02 2009 18:31 Just for the record, Miller doesn't have an unimpeachable canon in the comics world: there are quite a few of us who feel that since he gained complete editorial freedom around 1990, his work's become increasingly simplistic and self-parodic. Whereas his work-for-hire in the 80s was complex and groundbreaking and exciting, his books since have been bitterly disappointing and plain old dumb.
Now Miller's continuing to plough the same narrow furrow ["guys being tough", as the genuinely unimpeachable Alan Moore put it] in the film world; after his recent pulpy graphic works - SIN CITY and 300 - became overrated moneyspinners, Miller gets a chance to make even more money himself by directing. Not surprising the results are even more of the same, and aren't particularly good.
Hopefully he's going to get a wakeup call after this film's reception, otherwise this might finally be the last nail in the coffin.
PS: Brett - comics are an incredibly versatile and [potentially] sophisticated storytelling form that can do ANYTHING and utilize ANY style - though they do this more often when they get over their pulp/superhero roots. Saying this movie can be excused being crap for using the most simplistic stereotypical "comic book" storytelling [and doing it badly!] is really lowering the critical bar.

Report as inappropriate
Brett said...

Posted on Jan 02 2009 16:18 First off the main criticism of this film seems to be that it is to much like a comic book... With the backing shots and "speech bubble" like speaking being apparent isn't it obvious that the comic book style is precicely what the writers and producers were going for? criticising this is like criticising The Matrix for being too un-realistic. This film is a must see for any comic strip enthuisasts and appeals to the younger generation with bright visuals and twisted fantasy without. The film features a prolific cast who deliver on many levels by playing power hungry comic book characters to a tee. However i agree that scarlett's acting prowess and natural beauty could've been used more efficiently.

Report as inappropriate