The (Holiday) Spirit in Review

Over the holidays, I did get a chance to go and see Frank Miller's 'The Spirit'. After such a great year for comic-based films and being a total fan of Miller's work, I had lofty expectations. Unfortunately, while the flick was a lot of fun, I was a bit underwhelmed.

Funny enough, while it was mega-slick visually ala 'Sin City', both the plot and dialogue were steeped in the borderline dark goofiness found in Will Eisner's original comics. It was said ham-handed noir-ish dialogue that ended up frustrating me a little...it worked for me in 'Sin City', but not this time.

The acting wasn't bad by any means, but most of the performances left me flat. Outside of Sam Jackson who, as main-baddie The Octopus, did a great job being, well, Sam Jackson...everybody else came off a little stiff and forced. Oh yeah, i'd be remiss if I didn't give props to the stellar performance by Eva Mendes's butt...or Eva Mendes's butt double. Wow.

So, yeah, the flick wasn't bad...it just wasn't that good. Like I said, I did have some fun taking it all in and it does deliver some cool things visually. I'd wait until it hits DVD and then decide for yourself...or pick up Darwyn Cooke's recent DC run on 'The Spirit' in TPB form.