Film Review: The Spirit

After the successes of Sin City and 300, it seemed only natural for Frank Miller to return to the director's chair. This time round it's The Spirit, as Miller tries to adapt another's work for the big screen. Would he have the same success as his previous films, or would the Spirit fade into obscurity?

Unfortunately it's almost certainly the latter, as The Spirit fails to deliver in almost every department. The story is completely schizophrenic, never really sure if it's a film noir detective story, a superhero flick, or a bad lesson in Greek mythology, hopping between the three at random intervals and never properly connecting them. It's essentially the same story for the characters, most of them having a loose connection to each other that is never properly delved into or explored.

The characters themselves are irritating enough, partially because they're shallow cardboard cut-outs with very basic and clichéd wants and needs, but mostly because the film constantly tries to trick you into thinking that there's more to them, alluding to some hidden depth that doesn't actually exist. Even when one of them does something out of character, and you're waiting hopefully for some shadowy intentions to be revealed, one of the other walking clichés will happily slap you round the face with the revelation that the other character probably did it on a whim, explaining it with some long winded psychological nattering which in most cases throughout the film can be effectively summed with with "women, eh?".

It's a little harsh to blame the cast when the characters and dialogue is as bad as it is, but the all round dreary and lacklustre performances certainly contributed to the lack of entertainment the film provides. While it was difficult to expect much from lead Gabriel Macht with his wafer thin pedigree, even big names such as Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson - a man who usually radiates awesome - were incredibly clunky and overly dramatic in their performances.

But, to be fair, The Spirit is incredibly clunky and over dramatic in almost every aspect, not least when it tries to convince you that, as well as being deep and mystical, it's also got a darker side. The film couldn't have been blunter or more ham fisted with it's apparently dark and twisted element if it tried, even going as far as having swastikas randomly flare up when the villain is about to give a speech. Sin City barely got away with it's swastika use, mainly because it was only briefly used by a sexy-kung-fu-fighting-ninja-prostitute, which is such a genius concept that we were willing to forgo the sheer cheapness of the swastika use and just roll with it. But in The Spirit, a film where everything is painfully shoddy and cheap, it's laughable.

Where Sin City had plot, and 300 has immense visual spectacle, The Spirit has neither. It's a truly dull film, and the only entertainment to be found here is when you're dreaming after falling asleep. Frank, next time stick to adapting your own graphic novels. Please.

2/5

Anyone else notice that half of the praise said in the trailer for this wasn't quoted from anyone? Ten quid says that they made half of it up and just threw it in there to fool people.

Started the year how he plans to carry it on: full of cynicism - tomdoodle16@live.co.uk