Denny Colt is a cop who was killed on the job, only to return from the grave for some unknown reason. Now more of less immortal he takes on the persona of The Spirit, protector of Central City. He fights his nemesis, the Octopus, an evil scientist who is also damned near impossible to kill.
Something like that, I dunno. There’s a lot missing from that synopsis but the one on IMDB appears to be about a different movie.
I SHOULD like the movie. It has numerous elements that I do like most of the time.
The style is very much Sin City, though you could throw in a bit of 300 and even Sky Captain. I really like all those films. In fact I think the reason that Frank Miller even got to make this is because he had a director credit on Sin City. It’s because you drew a comic Frank, not for any other reason. So I should like the look. And I do, but wasn’t wowed by it in any way. It felt overly stylised too, got a bit old.
It’s noir, or at least noir-ish. There wise cracking dialogue, sort of. The women are called dames a fair bit. The men all wear hats. It seems to be set in a version of the 20’s or 30’s that’s been transposed in to the current world with electronic money transfers and Kevlar vests. That’s the kind of thing I should like. But the dialogue doesn’t quite work most of the time.
Scarlett Johansson has probably never been as attractive as she is in this film. She’s made for the above time period and she looks gorgeous here playing a twisted scientist. Samuel L Jackson chews up the scenery as The Octopus, a completely off the wall villain who’s as nuts as a bag of crazy people. Louis Lombardi plays a large number of throw away hench clones, and they’re complete idiots who are occasionally funny. There’s nothing wrong with Gabriel Macht’s performance as The Spirit. Dan Lauria, the dad from The Wonder Years, plays a very good police chief and I always like seeing that guy. Eva Mendes doesn’t suck out loud, and the girl playing her as a kid in flash back (Seychelle Gabriel) might have a pretentious as fuck name, but she’s a good young actress.
It has a bunch of cats in it.
For all those reasons I should like this. Lots. I don’t. It’s meh. I don’t feel cheated for watching it. I don’t want to yell about how terrible it is, or tear it a new one. It just felt really really really long. It was kinda boring. It never gelled. It had trouble holding my attention. Thing is, I don’t really know WHY that’s the case.
Pretty much a complete waste of your time in my opinion and from all the scuttlebutt about it on the web. It’s a miss fire, but I couldn’t tell you exactly why it’s a miss fire…
Next up: The Day The Earth Stood Still. A remake of a film I really like. Hold on to your hats, it may not be a pretty blog…
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