The Spirit

Will Eisner's classic 1940s comic strip The Spirit not only featured excellent storytelling techniques, but also took its visual inspiration from the then-burgeoning film noir school of moviemaking. Stripped of nearly everything that made it so satisfying, Eisner's work has here been turned into a cinematic disaster. Charisma-less Gabriel Macht is inconsequential as Denny Colt, the eponymous hero and one-time police detective long believed dead, who fights crime in Central City from his secret headquarters in the cemetery where he was buried. The Spirit's archenemy, a criminal mastermind known only as The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson), appears to be (the plot is frankly incomprehensible) pursuing an elixir that guarantees eternal life. Director and famed comic book artist Frank Miller is clearly far more preoccupied with replicating the highly stylized imagery that distinguished the movie versions of his graphic novels Sin City and 300 than with telling a coherent story. Macht's ineffectiveness in the title role is unfortunately matched by Sarah Paulson, whose Ellen Dolan (Colt's girlfriend) is a drab and colorless character. This leaves Jackson and a bevy of beautiful femmes fatale—including Eva Mendes, Scarlett Johansson, and Paz Vega—to steal the film…what's left of it. Not recommended. (E. Hulse)