There's no doubting Frank Miller's storytelling talent. He gave us the astonishing graphic novels 300 and Sin City and decided to “co-direct” the latter in movie form with Robert Rodriguez (although we all know Miller just sat next to Rodriguez and watched him do his thing). But it seems that Miller wanted to try his hand at writing and directing his own film, presumably just as an experiment to see if he had the skill to carry the creative weight almost entirely on his own shoulders.
Well it's disappointing to find out that the experiment has failed; Miller should either take some time to watch and learn from more experienced filmmakers or just stick to creating graphic novels. He just doesn't have the experience or evidently the skill to carry a film's story, to make it work on screen, and he barely even manages to make it watchable. The cheesy dialogue, the outlandish characters, and the over-the-top feel may have worked on the comic book page but it doesn't work on screen. It's not quite the unwatchable, terrible, “all-time worst” movie that a lot of people have called it, but it's not far off.
The film tells the story of rookie cop Denny Colt who comes back to life as the masked hero known as The Spirit (Gabriel Macht), whose mission is to fight against and protect “his city” from the bad forces that plague it, particularly his nemesis The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson).
One wonders whether or not Miller is playing the film for laughs. Its inherent cheesiness is either a result of shrewd wit on Miller's part or just plain inexperience as to what works on screen. The latter is more likely, considering he's only ever had experience on one film set previous to this. Miller probably didn't realise what it truly takes to invest yourself into making a film; even having a small role is hard work, never mind taking on both writing and directing the whole thing. Miller just doesn't have the know-how to make this story work, and the results are at times painful to witness.
The Spirit is an example of stylization given primary importance and overshadowing practically everything else. Miller employs a lazily similar style to Sin City and although it's indeed cool to watch, it's nothing we haven't seen before. It worked well in Sin City simply because we hadn't really seen anything like it before but Miller seems to think that simply anything will work, with flaws forgiven, if that style is applied. But it doesn't; you need more than style to make a movie work, even one such as this. Sin City had great, memorable characters, bloody, “beautiful” violence, over-the-top but not cheesy dialogue and a noir tone that will be looked back on with wide-eyed appreciation in years to come. It's a real shame the same can't be said about The Spirit.
Article comments
1 - Steve Sparks
Damn shame, what Miller has done to a character which on the printed page has so much more class and wit! Seems another case of a man badly in need of an editor - much as I dig most of his stuff on the printed page, this fella does get a wee bit self-indulgent at times...and this flick (I shan't deign to give it the more honourable title of 'film' - simply doesn't have the substance to deserve the sobriquet) positively reeks of self-indulgence!
Never mind, I shall put Sin City and 300 on the dvd player to remind myself what CAN be done with the genre...and Frankie, watch Night of the Hunter with Robert Mitchum if you want to see what REAL noir and screen menace is about...