Review of The Spirit (2008) by J-Shap — 24 Aug 2011

In one scene in The Spirit, Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johannsson (the only two actors in this movie who are at least having fun with their performances) appear decked in Nazi uniforms, while the movie's hero is strapped to a dentist's chair, and a Turkish-style belly dancing, moves around him.

While I don't remember Turkish-style belly dancers from Marathon Man, but I do remember dentist Nazis, so I understand the relation between those seemingly random props. What do I not understand? Well, what does Marathon Man have to do with a crime-fighting superhero, and what in the movie lead up to this? You could make an entire three season game show on why scenes in The Spirit are the way they are.

All this is is Frank Miller masturbating to his own sense of self-interest. While Miller attempts to advance his strengths and recapture the excellent work he did in his early days as a comic book writer, he is too fascinated with his own desire to have women dress in revealing outfits and have his hero spew out pretentious narration about the city turns him on.

Frank, I loved The Dark Knight Returns, but you have lost it! You're just trying to every conceivable idea for style that floats into your head, paying no respect to the source material (I never read The Spirit, but I think that it is important to honor your source material), and just assuming that if you merge it with this needlessly dark, half-joking, over-sexualizing bullcrap, it will be great.