Dr. Freex put “The Spirit” under my tree for this Sadistic Santa gift exchange. It’s not a good movie by any stretch of the imagination, but I think that Freex is getting soft in his old age.
What I am saying is that I like my bad movies to be a lot better at being bad than this one.
Review Snippet:
After the battle, the Octopus returns to his subterranean lair with a mysterious box that he stole from a mysterious woman in a hole at the bottom of the city’s sea. When the super criminal opens the box, he finds that it is full of bling. He becomes very upset, because he didn’t want a box full of bling. What the Octopus was looking for was a vase in the box in the hole at the bottom of the sea. Inside the vase is supposed to be the blood of Hercules. All of the cloned morons saw the woman, Sand Saref, leave with the other box. They was watching.
Deprived of the blood in the vase in the box from the hole at the bottom of the sea, the Octopus lets his rage get the best of him. He turns into Samurai Jack and kills the morons. What this accomplishes is a mystery, because the only way he can replace the dead morons is to clone even more morons. Meaning that the new morons are going to be just as stupid as the ones he just chopped up.
Lesson Learned:
Never, ever make a movie in Albuquerque.
#1 by supersonic on December 23, 2010 - 4:52 pm
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If it is a satire, it’s a fairly brilliant one.
#2 by Luke Blanchard on December 23, 2010 - 6:16 pm
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The Spirit originally appeared (with a couple of other features) in a regular insert section containing comics stories that appeared in newspapers in the 40s and 50s. His creator was Will Eisner, but others also worked on the strip (although he retained control of it).
According to his origin story, he was a former private eye who adopted the identity of the Spirit after he was believed killed. He worked closely with the police, and was the Spirit full time. He was easygoing, tough and a guy who could crack a difficult case.
Some of the strip’s elements were noirish, but it also had a considerable helpings of humour, a bigfoot element in the art, and likeable supporting characters. The stories often included elements of satire and fantasy. Eisner and co. experimented in memorable ways with comics storytelling. The splash panels often worked the “Spirit” logo into the art.
Although the Spirit was extremely tough – he’d often get into a brawl with several opponents and come out on top, his clothes being shredded in the process – he had no superpowers. Making him superhuman is rather like giving Sherlock Holmes the power to project electicity from his hands. (“That’s a bit of a jolt, Holmes.” “Positively shocking, my dear Watson.”)
He lived in Wildwood cemetary, with his sidekick, a black kid called Ebony White (who was drawn in a caricatured style, and spoke in Southern dialect). The Commissioner’s daughter knew who he was, and was one of his close associates. He never engaged in internal monologues, or rhapsodised about “his” city. Instead, he was a down-to-Earth, regular guy, who often had to deal with craziness. He liked women, but was able to resist the strip’s femme fatales when they made passes at him.
#3 by MatthewF on December 24, 2010 - 3:58 am
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The idea of an immortality serum that doesn’t last forever is fantastic.
Also, and while everyone else has noted this about Frank Miller, that man is, what, in his fifties? So why is everyone woman some kind of teenage wet-dream? Nothing wrong with a bit of eye-candy but really it’s kind of embaressing after a while.
#4 by PB210 on December 24, 2010 - 5:03 am
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Odd thing about the Spirit, one of the primary criticisms about conventional US comics has to do with those spandexy costumes and that they will look ridiculous in live action. However, the Spirit just wears a conservative suit, and it flopped.
Reminds me of this post on the IMDB:
“SO…
You’re saying two guys wearing coats and hats driving around in a limo taking on the criminal underworld (something that’s done by COUNTLESS persons in undercover law enforcement everyday) HAS to be ‘lampooned’ in a comedy, because it’s an outdated concept, but a guy in a batsuit driving a car with wings on it should be treated seriously.
Okaaayyyy….”
#5 by drfreex on December 24, 2010 - 5:08 pm
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I don’t know about my getting soft, but I definitely wanted to see someone in our circle kick this movie around, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to watch it again to do it.
Miller’s bizarre attitude toward female characters in his work does lead to a lot of head-scratching. After re-imagining Catwoman as a professional dominatrix and Black Canary as an Irish barmaid, you begin to suspect a wee bit of a problem there…
#6 by supersonic on December 24, 2010 - 10:11 pm
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Was it Keith who advanced the theory that Miller is trying to deny to himself that he’s gay?
#7 by Thomas on December 26, 2010 - 12:22 am
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I actually quite liked The Spirit. It’s one of those films like Hudson Hawk or Buckaroo Banzai – they make no sense, and they’re not all that good, but there’s just something about them. At least they’re different, and a bit of fun.
#8 by craig york on January 5, 2011 - 1:09 pm
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I wanted to like this one: I’ve liked The Spirit
since I read the Warren re-prints in the 1970s…but…
owie. I was surprised the Miller would have gone so far out of his way to put his own stamp on what was a
adequately cinematic comic to begin with.