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Film review: The Spirit

Frank Miller co-directed the innovative movie version of his graphic novel Sin City with Robert Rodriguez, and now has gone solo with this film based on the influential 1940 comic strip by the legendary Will Eisner. Set entirely at night in the grimy, timeless Central City, the film combines live action and computer-generated backgrounds, and features an indestructible masked avenger called the Spirit (Gabriel Macht). A former cop, he assists the police while conducting a vendetta against the evil Octopus (Samuel L Jackson) and his femme fatale accomplice Silken Floss (Scarlett Johansson). The Spirit differs from other comic book crusaders in that he finds women irresistible and vice versa. The film often looks good (there is an interesting visual homage to the Lon Chaney Phantom of the Opera) but is altogether less impressive than Sin City, and there's an incoherent narrative that has something to do with the Octopus's search for the blood of Heracles, which will make him immortal. The jokes in particular are heavy-handed and misguided. In one scene the Octopus beats the Spirit over the head with a cistern and lavatory pan, shouting "Toilets are always funny!"; in another he and Silken Floss don SS uniforms to torment the trussed Spirit. The public is unlikely to clamour for a sequel. Action and adventure Science fiction and fantasy Comics Scarlett Johansson guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (read more)