The Spirit

I really wanted to enjoy this movie the way I did with 300 and Sin City, but for some reason Frank Miller fell completely flat in this telling of the graphic novel. With such a strong cast of actors I expected great things. This movie ended up being completely one of style over substance, but even the style fell short of the directing style that Miller provided in 300 and Sin City. I guess every great director are entitled to have bad movies.

I do not know if it was the intention of the writing but the over acting was very laughable. Samuel L. Jackson is the most blatant violator of the over acting bug. I was laughing during most of the scenes he was in not because of a funny line, but was just embarassing. Is it just me or has Samuel L. Jackson become an actor that is hard to take serious? The over acting of the actors was almost cartoonish and with a graphic novel that may be in part the feel Miller was shooting for, it went past the line he developed in Sin City with his characters and made me wonder when an anvil would drop on the head of a character. Eva Mendes, did not serve much of a purpose other then being eye candy.

Unfortunately, part of the issue with the lacking performances by the cast can not be entirely be placed on the cast but the writing was just very lackluster. In Sin City Miller not only gave great style but the substance was there as well. In The Spirit there was absolutely no character development as they skated through the movie from scene to scene without anything else.

I definitely expected more and because of this I am glad that I bought this DVD from Hollywood Video at a price of only $0.99. Because of the lackluster performances and the lack of a new look with the style of Frank Miller I am only giving this movie one bucket of popcorn out of five.

-The Movie Man-