I spent the evening watching the movie The Spirit. It is a Frank Miller film based on Will Eisner’s comic book of the same name. I have to say that I am not impressed. It does have some really good points. I love the cinematography. In one of the readings from class, I don’t remember which one at this time, talked about the comic book artists framed their panels as if they were filming the scene. But it seems more like many movies and TV shows now film their scenes as if it was a comic book. The cast is filled with many actors and actresses I like. But the film feels like it has no heart.
It feels as though they don’t know how they want this movie to feel like. They jump from film noir to camp to comedy and back again. And what is with Samuel L. Jackson in a Nazi uniform? The film does seem to keep true to the comic books in some ways. The Spirit still has a thing for Sand Saref and the Commissioner and his daughter are still his allies. I haven’t read the comic books but I am pretty sure I would like them more then I like this movie. But not every comic book movie can be Iron Man.
I had never gotten around to watching the film adaptation of "The Spirit" but the reviews, yours included, have helped me confirm my initial suspicions about the film: style over substance.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know everyone involved in "300" was still riding really, really high off of it when "The Spirit" came out. I think there was a determination to make it annoyingly obvious to the audience of subsequent films that the people involved in film X or Y were also connected to the "300" phenomena.
I also wonder how much funding the film got. "The Spirit" is a classic comic for sure but it's not nearly as recognizable to contemporary audiences who are probably more familiar with Superman or Batman. Maybe they felt freer to play with the story telling method because people weren't likely to be as locked into the character?
I should really just "bite the bullet" and rent the film already.