 by Iann Robinson | Frank Miller's adaptation of Will Eisner's 'The Spirit' gets some tough love. |
This week the trailer for Frank Miller’s film take on the comic book icon The Spirit came out and, as usual, Frank Miller has taken one step away from serious comic book artist and one step closer to dancing bear. I used to have a lot more bile and hatred for what Frank Miller has become and how he has ruined his legacy with shitty film adaptations like Sin City and mind-bendingly awful takes on iconic characters like Batman. I don’t so much hate him now as pity him. Here’s a man whose legacy in comic books wasn’t enough for him, so now he’s playing the Hollywood game and selling out anything he can to become famous. It’s sad to watch this, and yet frustrating because Frank is stepping on a lot of time-honored toes to move up the ladder of success. I’ve been saying this about Miller since the Sin City movie and I think people are now catching on and I believe his take on The Spirit will seal that idea.
Since the beginning, I have been skeptical about the “new” Frank Miller approaching The Spirit, for several reasons. The first was when DC decided to re-launch the comic book series; I saw no evidence of Miller trying to involve himself with it at all. I believe at this point Miller was too busy trying to make the movie, the more high-profile of the two ideas even though The Spirit is and always will be a comic book personality first. Comic legend Will Eisner introduced the forward thinking idea of “smart comics” with The Spirit and fought every publisher he had to keep them intelligent, exciting and not dumbed down for young children. Eisner’s wit and charm soaked through the pen and gave The Spirit not only a sense of justice but also a sense of humor. Though he was a lady-killer and tough guy, Eisner’s Spirit seemed almost ill at ease with his new role as mysterious vigilante of justice.
The Spirit had a deep sense of regret and longing and that made him three-dimensional. When the comic was re-launched the task of re-creating that fell to Darwyne Cooke (JLA – The New Frontier) who nailed it, from the art to the tone he just nailed what The Spirit was about. They should have made an animated Spirit movie with Cooke at the helm and the team that created the JLA New Frontier film on board. As well as movie aspirations, Miller was too busy shitting all over Bob Kane’s grave with All Star Batman & Robin to attempt The Spirit comic (and thank GOD for that small favor). Not wanting any of his heroes to go unsoiled, Frank decide to adapt the Spirit as a film, oh goody!!
The second issue I had with The Spirit was how little falderal was made over who had been chosen to play the title role. Gabriel Macht (playing The Spirit) hasn’t done much so I have no idea if he’ll be brilliant or suck but everybody involved with the film acts like it doesn’t matter. They brought him up and then dropped his involvement to focus on the fact that they got Samuel Jackson, Scarlett Johansson and all these other big name celebrities. Um, isn’t it called “The Spirit”? Shouldn’t there be a bit more focus on who is playing the title character of The Spirit? Nope, we have a hot ass chick and that’s all we need!!! Hey, Sin City was devoid of decent acting, direction or style but those hot chicks got asses in seats so we’ll just repeat that.
The third problem I have is Samuel Jackson as “The Octopus”, the villain in The Spirit comics. Much like Miller himself, somehow Jackson has become some agent of cool. As in if you have Jackson in your movie then you have some “edgy” product to hawk to the movie audience. Ok, well, Jackson is a one trick pony and his “Bad Ass Angry Guy” thing is so boring now it’s hard to even stand. I just don’t see how his, “I’m tired of this mother****n Spirit in my mother****n business” style of acting fits with the original character. If you honestly think Jackson will rise above that style to commit to playing it a different way, you’re probably going to be sadly disappointed.
The fourth issue I have is with Eva Mendes playing one of the most pivotal characters from The Spirit comics “Sand Saraf”. I don’t know if anybody saw the movie “Hitch” or “Ghost Rider” but Eva Mendes could be one of the worst actresses in the history of the medium. She’s so cardboard, so devoid of any ability to emote that it becomes like watching a cardboard cutout with somebody behind it speaking lines.
I’m also not a huge fan of the idea that Miller has excluded Spirit sidekick Ebony White from the picture. Sure there were serious issues with that character but he could be rewritten a bit for the movie, which is so much better than just removing him. My fifth issue is that Frank Miller is writing the script and directing the movie. Well Frank has never directed anything ever. You can try to argue his co-directing credit on Sin City if you want however not only was that movie awful but Rodriguez directed most of the film and we all know it. As far as writing, well, based on the translation of Sin City to film and the current All Star Batman And Robin, Miller’s writing skills have all but left him. Since so much of The Spirit is tone and dialogue, I have little-to-no faith that this movie will be any good.
My sixth issue comes with the style of the film. The Spirit is an everyman, in an everyman suit, trying to fight for the everyman. This hyper-animated CGI Sin City look of the film is NOT the grim and gritty noir style of the comic. In Eisner’s Spirit he doesn’t wear a slick black suit with a flaming red tie (as seen in the movie trailer and poster), it’s not who he is, it’s not what Eisner wanted him to be. The trailer is so forced cool, so “Check out all the shit we can do” that it almost feels like George Lucas is doing it. The tag line is “The City Is My Lover And Tonight She Screams For Me.” WHAT!? Are you kidding? This sounds more like Dean Koontz trying to write film noir than Dashiell Hammett. From being an avid fan of all things Eisner (my own comic I put out was called A Fistfight With God, an homage in title to A Contract With God) this movie just seems like a failure on all levels. To make a true version of The Spirit you take a script with a Dashiell Hammet vibe to it, add a generous helping of original Raiders Of The Lost Ark style adventure and filmmaking and then mix well with the noir aesthetics of old John Houston movies and BAM you have an amazing film. You have The Spirit!!
Miller seems to be giving us the only thing he can now which is a hype machine. Something so surrounded with pre-buzz that people would go regardless of the quality of the film. I mean seriously, the Kiss Ass Kings over at aintitcoolnews are already singing the movies praise (except Moriarity, the only one over there who seems to have his own opinions) and their justification is “This is Frank Miller’s Spirit not Will Eisner’s Spirit”. That is the biggest cop out I have ever heard. I suppose if Brett Ratner does a re-make of Jaws and it stars Chris Tucker as Brody, Jackie Chan as Hooper and Samuel Jackson as Quint they would say “Well this is Brett Ratner’s Jaws!!” Sorry guys that shit doesn’t wash. You may want to be able to slap high five’s with Frank Miller when you see him so you’ll bend over for this crappy movie but I can’t. I love Will Esiner way too much and this film seems like a serious insult to his memory and the memory of an iconic character that helped create comics, as we know them.
Shame on you Frank Miller, shame on you!!
Iann Robinson is a writer, radio host and TV host. For more of Iann's work visit his blog at Our Worlds At War.
