Stylized emptiness

“The Spirit” is writer-director Frank Miller’s latest adaptation of Will Eisner’s comic book bearing the same title. The film inherently draws comparison to Miller’s directorial debut, “Sin City,” another graphic novel he created.

Moviegoers will quickly notice the stylistic similarities to “Sin City” – the film-noir ambiance, the rotoscoping, the animation of live-action and the copious amount of bright red blood juxtaposed against black and white backgrounds.

These techniques all worked wonderfully for Miller the first time, but far too much was borrowed, and this film reeked of laziness.

Maybe if the character development was interesting it would provide a veil for the perpetual stylistic copying, but it doesn’t by any means.

Gabriel Macht stars as police officer Denny Colt, a masked cop who patrols Central City – a place where its inhabitants aren’t sure what year it is. Characters are generally dressed in ‘60s garb, but also accessorize with Nokia cell phones.
Macht is seemingly devoid of emotion, delivering too many cheesy one-liners that repeatedly fall flat.

Samuel L. Jackson plays the Octopus, the movie’s flamboyant villain. His motives for world domination are as aimless as his costume changes. He appears as a cowboy, a samurai, a Nazi and finally sticks with a fur coat and plenty of blue eyeliner.

The Octopus’ aim is to track down and drink the blood of Hercules, achieving immortality. But where Macht’s performance is robotic, Jackson’s is over-the-top and annoyingly vivacious.

The script grants no reason for anyone to care about these characters – providing the audience with a lack of connection. Dialogue is carried out awkwardly, and critical conversations appear unnatural.

The DVD includes many extras, such as an insightful commentary with Miller and producer Deborah Del Prete. Also included is a feature called “Green World,” which offers an extensive examination on the film’s use of green-screen techniques. Buyers get to see an alternate storyboard ending, which proves fairly interesting.

Though “The Spirit” is a messy comic book adaptation at best, the DVD extras may win over fans of the comic book and those looking for eye candy.