Matt: The Spirit is a fictional character, a comic book crime-fighter created by writer-artist Will Eisner in 1940. This comic was originally published as a seven page insert into the Sunday paper. One might wonder how an entire film could be composed of comic inserts and maintain a fluid story line. The answer to this dilemma is that it cannot be done! As a film The Spirit was very scattered and viewers that I questioned were still confused about the storyline after they watched the entire movie. The Spirit is filmed in a similar style as Sin City. The women found throughout The Spirit are gorgeous and have the same eye candy appeal as was common to Sin City. Predominately everything is black and white; however specific colors are emphasized to set the mood of the seen. For example, when blood is shown reds found in the environment are almost exaggerated.
The Spirit seems to be set in a 1920’s time period, but there are constant uses of modern technology. The characters can be seen driving an automobile from the 1920’s and talking on a Samsung cell phone. Laptops and contemporary weapons also were able to be worked into the story.
The cast stars Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson, Sarah Paulson, Scarlett Johansson, and Eva Mendes which seem to give the illusion of an incredible movie experience. However, the plot and overall storyline was very segmented and failed to connect to much of anything. The execution of the movie could be compared to viewing a collection of short clips involving the same actors. For instance, the villain (Samuel L. Jackson) can be seen conducting genetic experiments and pairing a human head to a foot. Yet, not to long later emerges with a Rambo like grenade launcher and is involved in a ridiculously explosive street battle.
If you decide to watch The Spirit I would recommend at least reading a summary of the comic strips and entering with a general knowledge of the intended storyline. This would be a great rainy day movie, when you want to do nothing but mindlessly watch something.
General Info:
Release Date: December 25, 2008
Running Time: 102 min.
Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of stylized violence and action, some sexual content and brief nudity.
Below is a link to the trailer:
