Getting Into The Christmas Spirit
Want to know how I celebrated Christmas? After opening all the presents under the tree with my family, I went to the movies. Yeah, big shocker. I practically live at a movie theater. But anyway, I decided to go see The Spirit, a cinematic adaptation of the comic book hero created by Will Eisner in 1940. I had absolutely no expectations going in, due to my lack of knowledge regarding the Spirit character, but I figured I'd give it a shot anyway. I was almost afraid I'd miss the showing I was there for, because the line of people there to buy tickets for Marley & Me stretched outside the building all the way to the parking lot. But I did get to see it after all, so let's talk about it.
Judging by all the promotional material, you'd think that the movie would end up being something similar to Sin City, especially considering that both of them were directed by Frank Miller. And as far as appearances, yeah, the movie looks exactly like Sin City. But unlike the grittiness of Sin City, The Spirit is essentially a live-action cartoon. It's thoroughly silly to the point of being absurd, feeling like a remake of Sin City as performed by Bugs Bunny and crew. There's also no story to speak of. Seriously, I couldn't identify any sort of plot whatsoever. There was something about stealing these cases filled with ancient artifacts, but I had no clue at all what was supposed to be happening. So while Miller's direction is visually exciting and stimulating, his writing leaves a whole lot to be desired.
But while I can't say I liked the movie's script, I'll applaud the acting, with Gabriel Macht and Samuel L. Jackson putting forth awesome performances worth seeing the movie for. In fact, the only bad part of the movie was the fact that the first half of the movie is way too slow. It takes a while for things to really get rolling, but once it does, it's a lot of fun. So I guess in short, I'd be willing to give The Spirit a thumbs-in-the-middle with three stars. It's worth a shot if you think you might be into it. It won't be up everyone's alley, but I didn't think it was too bad at all.
Judging by all the promotional material, you'd think that the movie would end up being something similar to Sin City, especially considering that both of them were directed by Frank Miller. And as far as appearances, yeah, the movie looks exactly like Sin City. But unlike the grittiness of Sin City, The Spirit is essentially a live-action cartoon. It's thoroughly silly to the point of being absurd, feeling like a remake of Sin City as performed by Bugs Bunny and crew. There's also no story to speak of. Seriously, I couldn't identify any sort of plot whatsoever. There was something about stealing these cases filled with ancient artifacts, but I had no clue at all what was supposed to be happening. So while Miller's direction is visually exciting and stimulating, his writing leaves a whole lot to be desired.
But while I can't say I liked the movie's script, I'll applaud the acting, with Gabriel Macht and Samuel L. Jackson putting forth awesome performances worth seeing the movie for. In fact, the only bad part of the movie was the fact that the first half of the movie is way too slow. It takes a while for things to really get rolling, but once it does, it's a lot of fun. So I guess in short, I'd be willing to give The Spirit a thumbs-in-the-middle with three stars. It's worth a shot if you think you might be into it. It won't be up everyone's alley, but I didn't think it was too bad at all.
posted by Matt Sutton at
7:48 PM
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