Hollywood struck gold with adaptations of Frank Miller’s graphic novels Sin City and 300. Miller even got to co-direct Sin City, and with this film based on Will Eisner’s The Spirit, he makes his solo directing debut. It’s a bold, visually stunning movie that’s long on style, but that can’t entirely compensate for a ho-hum story and a hero who just isn’t all that interesting. The storyline: The Spirit (Gabriel Macht) runs and jumps around Central City in noirish fashion, trying to stop the evil machinations of the Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson) and his assistant Silken Floss (Scarlett Johansson). The situation is complicated when a woman from the Spirit’s past, Sand Saref (Eva Mendes), and the Octopus each wind up with an artifact the other wants. There are some moments of fun in the movie, but far too much of it drags. And purists, beware: Miller has made a number of changes to the source material. HH 1/2
This article appears in Dec 17-23, 2008.