The Spirit (2008)

The Spirit, 2.5 out of 4 stars

Gabriel Macht as the spirit in "The Spirit" Is he a ghost? Find out yourself.

The Spirit, directed by Frank Miller, who brought you his real masterpiece, "Sin City" in 2005. This film is an adaptation from a comic book of the same name. The story is about the spirit (Gabriel Macht) who find his nemesis known as Octupus (Samuel L. Jackson) who wants to find a mystical blood of Heracles or Hercules so that he will become immortal. On that day, a woman named Sand Saref (Eva Mendes) an ex- girl friend of the spirit discovered two chests at the pond. One of the chests contain the blood of Heracles, so Octupus and his thugs make their way to find Sand Saref in order to get the chest. In order to protect his ex- girl friend, the spirit has to stop Octupus before he reaching her. So, first of all I heard a lot of bad reviews about this movie from my friends, from my friends' friend and others. In my opinion, this movie isn't bad enough to make it the worst of 2008, actually. I like Frank Miller movies, I like the way he present the movie and the way he makes the joke in the movie. Of course, I'm quite disappointed about this movie. Why? Because "Sin City" is really perfect. In "Sin City", he used a lot of comical style in it. Because of this, when you watch "Sin City", you feels like the comic is coming to real life. But, in "The Spirit", he used a few comical style. I expect he use more comical style in this film but he didn't. But still, the movie came out with a style that follows "300" and more. The only things that I really admire from this movie is the introduction and the ending. Frank Miller done a great job in it. Besides that, this film contain a very strong women characteristic in it. It makes the film looks very stylish and colorful. Besides that, it shows that women are very important for the spirit. The director handle the women character very well and I envy that. The only flaws is the story telling. This movie has "Sin City" style but don't have "Sin City" style of story telling. The story of this film is kind of weird but I like that (Because Frank Miller's movie also kind of weird) but the plot progression in this film is very bad. It make this film feel very boring and tedious. For me, I still can accept it but for the audiences maybe they can't. Despite a bad plot progression, this film is sometimes funny and hilarious. But some part of the jokes are not suitable in that particular situation. Overall for this film, "Frank Miller's latest film is boring and tedious, despite that it's still consider a good movie which has a great visual style and with a great weird presentation."