Rookie cop Denny Colt returns from the beyond as The Spirit, a hero whose mission is to fight against the bad forces in Central City. The Spirit was just as bad as i've heard for the last 10 years i mean i can't believe how awful this movie was. That battle between The Octopus and The Spirit looked so freaking full of green screen that it was embarrasing and the perfomances? they were even worse. Definitely a superhero film without the 'super' in it but also without any actual good thing in it except the end credits when it finally ended....!!! (0/10)

Great master of comics and after co-direct "Sin City Sin City (2005)" alongside Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller, that one day has written Robocop 2 (1990) and Robocop 3 (1993), returns to his first toward the ground, this time adapting a story published in the newspaper, written by Will Eisner.In Central City, the rookie cop Denny Colt is murdered but returns from the dead as the detective known only as The Spirit. His biggest rival is the villain known as Octopus. Another known is the femme fatale Sand Saref, discovering two Bauss in a lake nearby. She tries to get away with this charge but Octopus of the strings that can be united and with one of the boxes with Saref taking the second can.The plot, bordering on the absurd, revolves around two chests containing the greatest treasures of the Argonauts (yes, Greek mythology), the blood of Herakles demigod and the Golden Fleece. The first is coveted by Octopus for it to become an immortal god and can dominate the world and since he and Spirit had the same serum injected into the body, Spirit would have to be killed so that no longer existed no one could compete with Octopus in order to rule the world. On the other hand, we have the obsession of international jewel thief Sand Saref, Spirit of youth ex-girlfriend when he was still known as Denny Colt, before being pronounced dead in his life as a police officer. The plot will develop until all the characters have their crossed destinations - as mandated by the predictable formula followed to the letter the script.Miller brings many of the features of his earlier work, Sin City, and bumps into old mistakes. On the one hand, Miller maintains almost monochrome photography, giving a visual noir production, highlighting the colors only at key moments or emphasizing only the red color in certain action scenes, the film piece in your script that seeks to provide a climate darker and more threatening all the time, but is lost at times when forcibly try to insert comedy (there is a bad extreme joke and not as black humor serves to wear the villain and his helper Nazis during a scene of human experience and torture with Spirit - something dispensable), failing to try to generate an escape to the viewer, and well know by the audience and catchphrases. That is, as a talented designer and knows exactly what to do. Miller, next to the director of photography Bill Pope, know to create a striking visual, looking like it had been designed by the artist frame by frame, but looks are not everything. Unlike Sin City, which had a more serious and dark narrative, here the script is very caricature and does not maintain the pace, alternating visual moments and interesting action with scenes that generate pure boredom.There is no shortage in this adaptation are useless discussions between the hero and the Dolan Police Commissioner (Dan Lauria) - which is angry with the way Spirit leaves the police out of the actions and the concern of his involvement with his daughter Ellen ( Sarah Paulson) - theoretically comic scenes between Octopus and his cloned henchmen (all experienced by Louis Lombardi) in opposite caricatured seriousness of his Silken assistant Floss moreover, these scenes seem more have come out of a Looney design Tunes than a Machiavellian villain who intends to be threatening. We also see Spirit seducing any woman who appears on the scene to demonstrate the seductive aspect of the character.The cast is indeed a serious problem, the result of an inexperienced director on the scene. Each character has different characteristics and end up clashing in whole. Gabriel Match that does not compromise as Spirit, who seduces not only women but the general public. On the other hand, Samuel L. Jackson gives himself totally to exaggeration, putting this Octopus, which in comics is a menacing and mysterious villain, as a caricature character who seems to have stepped out of a cartoon. In turn, the veteran Dan Lauria, the eternal father of Kevin's "Wonder Years" goes almost hit the scene. Eva Mendes (beautiful and sexy) plays the mysterious Sand Saref, which was the best developed female character, making us doubt his moral at all times. The other characters are shallow, poorly developed and a waste. Scarlett Johansson as the villain assistant Silken Floss, Stana Katic as police newcomer Morgenstern, Paz Vega as the insane killer Plaster of Paris, Jaime King as Lorelei, the angel of death, and Sarah Paulson as Dr. Ellen Dolan, the "true love" hero. If characters are under-utilized, the female cast is filling male eyes, no doubt.The soundtrack of David Newman, composer of "The Flintstones: The Movie (1994)" and "Ice Age (2002)," is one of the things that stand out in the technical aspect. Newman knows measure a more mysterious and gloomy soundtrack with the action scenes. Gregory Nussbaum's edition is problematic in some respects. The film lacks pace, and it is also helped by the script in some extremely descriptive times and breaking the rhythm of the action on the screen.One of the most visible aspects is the lack of rhythm and attractive scenes that show the hero skills and something threatening in his villain. The action does not correspond and the end is fast, poorly developed and still leaves loose ends for a possible continuation. Frank Miller, unfortunately, delivers an extremely irregular work. If the technical aspects until everything works, it leaves much to be desired in the narrative aspect and in its cast. THe Spirit is certainly an interesting work on the graphic novel and deserves another chance in the big screen.

After you get past the overly-long opening battle between Samuel L. Jackson (The "Octopus") and the Spirit, the film settles down a bit. Impossibly beautiful women abound (just like in a comic strip). It also has a series of clones that act like the 3 Stooges and Wyle E. Coyote; always getting blown-up or comically killed off. (The tire tracks are the best.) It's nonsensical. Death is a mistress named "Loreli". She wants the soul of The Spirit. The Golden Fleece, Hercule's blood, Nazi uniforms? It's actually slightly better than it sounds, and it sounds pretty bad. The Spirit dies several times by every means possible: multiple gunshots, bombs, knives, drowning. He is immortal yet paradoxically already dead. The "plot exposition" makes no sense either. Confusing in a gritty, graphic way. Filmed in almost black and white with occasional color used for emphasis. Uses a lot of computer-generated "sets". It plays better on cable, with all the bad cussing cleaned up. Other graphic novels have been translated to the screen in a far better fashion. "The Octopus" is played for laughs and it shouldn't have been. His "cloned stooges" spoil "the spirit" of the movie.(Sorry.) What is that one tiny piece of "The Octopus" left alive? It looks like a piece of his finger or something worse. A strange piece of work. When a film can't decide either to be a thriller or a comedy, it usually fails at both. This one certainly does. I don't expect a sequel. This was a box-office bomb. People even walked out.

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.