Ultra-Stylistic Noir and Cheesecake Fun, Filmed and Framed like the Comic Book from Will Eisner in High-Artistic Frank Miller Fashion. It is Powerful Imagery with High-Contrast Black and White with Color Touches. Much Like Sin-City (2004) from the Frank Miller Comic, and the Author-Artist was Awarded Co-Director Credit on that Ground-Breaking Movie.

But Folks Expecting the Gruesome Violence and Graphic-Gore that was so Unique in Sin-City may be a bit Disappointed with The Spirit. The Look is the Same but the Tone is Nowhere near as Dark. This One is Played Mostly for Humor, but there is Enough Action and Cool City Stuff that it Holds its Own in its Own Way and is True to the Source Material.

It was a Big Flop and Critics Shredded it Without much Exception. But They were Unduly Harsh and this Movie will be Watchable Years from Now as Pop-Culture Iconic and Artistic Playfulness, whereas a lot of those that get Great Critical Acclaim, and Academy Awards will be Ignored and Dismissed.

Recommended for Fans of the Character, Frank Miller's Style, and for those Searching for Something on the Edge and Atypical of Comic Book Movies in General.

This is Film-Noir Once Removed and Placed in the Hands of Comic Book Artists and Digital Craftsman who have a Respect for and an Admiration for the Genre and the Initial Time Period of the 1940's that had the Vintage Spirit Character and Film-Noir.

I have never read The Spirit comics nor do I know anything about him. However, I chose to watch this film because, as I was changing TV channels, I caught about five minutes of the film--and Samuel L. Jackson seemed like the funniest bad guy I've ever seen. So, I Netflixed the movie and then noticed that NO ONE liked the film on IMDb. So, I had a film coming that no one seemed to like...or at least practically no one. Would I, also, hate this movie? Well, no...though I sure hated PARTS of the film!

"The Spirit" begins with narration by The Spirit...long, dull, boring, self-satisfied and annoying narration! In fact, just about EVERYTHING he says is bad...really, really bad. One-dimensional, badly written...and just BAD. And, the same can be said for Plaster of Paris. Now this is weird, however, as many other folks in the film have GREAT dialog. Samuel L. Jackson was wonderful--hilarious, strange and among the best villains I have seen. And, his wonderfully disposable sidekicks (the bald '-os' clones)...every time they speak, I can't help but laugh. AND this is just so gosh-darn annoying--with such widely varying dialog I kept loving and hating the film again and again as I watched.

As for the plot,....well,...let's just say that it's not particularly good. BUT, the film has such a wild look that you can ALMOST look past the plot....almost. So, while this comic book look created by using nothing but CGI for everything but the characters (kind of like in "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow"),you were so taken out of the moment by bad writing and bad dialog that all the tremendous money spent on the film was essentially wasted.

So, it just so turns out that the five minutes I had seen (the portion where Octopus is dressed as a Nazi) is by far the best of the film. Had I seen much of the rest of the film, I doubt if I would have gotten the DVD. But, for this and a few other scenes, it IS worth seeing the film....once. More than once....?! Nah! You've got to be kidding...

...and remove EVERY single aspect that was good about that movie. The ultra-violence, the decent actors, the cool dialogue, the action-heavy story lines. Replace them with a lame, insipid, kid-friendly retread of the same kind of comic book film and you have THE SPIRIT, one of the absolute worst Hollywood movies I've witnessed in a while.

Sure, Frank Miller was efficient at writing and creating violent comic books and as working on a producer on various adaptations of his work like SIN CITY and 300, but what on earth possessed him in thinking he could make it as a director? THE SPIRIT is the absolute pits and a definite low in the careers of all involved.

Gone is the multi-layered narrative of SIN CITY, in which various sub-plots merged and came to successful fruition as the plotting progressed, to be replaced by the simple story of a crime fighter, a drug overlord and the former's desire for revenge on the latter. The 'look' and style of the film is a carbon copy of the 'look' and style of SIN CITY, except without the novelty value, so it's boring by now.

Even worse, the actors in this were encouraged to go completely over the top (it is, you know, a comic book story after all). So we get some of the most horrendous performances ever. Samuel L. Jackson is the worst offender, I felt acutely embarrassed for him every time he appears on screen. Scarlet Johansson is also very bad, although I'd expect no better from Eva Mendes who appears as window dressing only. As the hero, Gabriel Macht is so charisma-free that he made no impression on me whatsoever.