'The Spirit' review

Gabriel Macht (Credit: Lionsgate/Odd Lot )

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Good luck parsing this together from the movie itself, but according to the press notes “The Spirit” is about Denny Colt (Gabriel Macht, sporadically charming), a murdered cop mysteriously reborn as masked crime fighter the Spirit. He fights to keep Central City safe from villains, including the megalomaniac Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson, hamming it up) and his sidekick Silken Floss (Scarlett Johansson). The Spirit also wrestles with his love for several women including childhood love-turned-jewel thief Sand Saref (Eva Mendes) and stalwart good girl Dr. Ellen Dolan (Sarah Paulson).

The buzz: “The Spirit” previewed some not-so-buzzworthy footage at this year’s Comic Con International but there’s still interest among comic fans since it’s the solo directing debut of comic book legend Frank Miller (“Sin City”), and is based on the iconic comic series by Will Eisner. As in “Sin City,” the entire film uses green screen and CGI to create Central City, right down to the water several characters swim through.

The verdict: After the superhero genre took a quantum leap forward with “The Dark Knight,” “The Spirit” brings it right back to the not-so-glory days of mid-‘90s disasters like “The Phantom” and “The Shadow”—only worse. Borderline incoherent and thoroughly unappealing, Miller’s debut proves that he may have a unique visual sense but he’s hardly, to put it kindly, a natural born filmmaker. “The Spirit” suffers from lethargic pacing, uneven performances and plentiful but utterly painful attempts at humor. It’s a cinematic lump of coal in the Christmas stockings of comic fans everywhere.

Did you know? Miller and Eisner had a longstanding friendship and mentee/mentor relationship until Eisner’s death in 2005. They originally met when Miller was writing and drawing one of his first “Daredevil” issues for Marvel.

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