25 Random Facts About the Spirit

Well isn't that something. Apparently its possible for Frank Miller, one of the most celebrated comic auteurs of all time, to miss the point completely. What point? Well for starters why people went to see Sin City. It was not because it is in black and white. If this were the case people would have lined the streets for that fucking Penguin film. Actually that's a bad example.

The Spirit by Will Eisner is a comic that deserves better. Or at least it deserves to not be associated with this mess of a film. What should be a story about a man literally willing to give up all he possesses to protect the city he loves becomes a story about Gabriel Macht's chest. Minding how fine a chest it is, this is still a terrible idea. Honestly this is like the Striptease of superhero movies.

The acting is a mixed bag to say the least. You could be lazy and say that people are hamming it up. But that would imply that Samuel L Jackson retains the ability to actually give a straight performance. He seems to be suffering from some sort of acting Alzheimer's where each year he gets further away from being able to play a normal person. Gabriel Macht and Stana Katic seem to have been taught to deliver their lines by the child who played the 5th wise man (we were a big class) in my 2nd form nativity production. Every now and then I expect them to stare off camera and shout "Line?"

Paz Vega is forgivable as Plaster of Paris a role as ridiculous as it sounds, Jamie King is Galadriel on LSD and Scarlett Johannson seemed as though she read femme-fatale in the character description as lobotomised-department store employee.

Now you could say that Eva Mendes redeems the film in some way. However when you contextualise this with he fact that she was willing to get naked and show her nipple for a perfume ad you realise how ridiculous this argument is. Its like saying Jaws 4 is redeemed by having a shark as the villain.

All in all its wonderful that Frank Miller proved how much talent Robert Rodriguez has. Also that someone was willing to finance a film where the cast were alowed to bring their own costumes, in addition to directing their own performances. I'm not saying any of this is good. Just wonderful. Literally.