The Spirit

Based on the comic of the same name and directed by Frank Millar and  starring Scarlett Johansson, this action superhero film follows an undead police officer and his attempts to thwart the plans of the evil Octopus (played by Samuel L Jackson).
The film is 100 minutes long.

Initially despite the poor reception I was still looking forward to this , there have been horrible comic adaptations like the Burton Batman  titles before but the Spirit manages to make a combination of Spiderman and Batman Forever/Batman and Robin seem watchable by comparison. The film is excruciatingly poor and that is a terrible thing because it looks beautiful , but then again Sky Captain and Kill Bill looked good and had action sequences and they were relatively awful films. This visual style the movie employs has already been done much better in both 300 and Sin city. The truly cruel part of what can only be deemed an “experience” that not even the flat (sometimes over) acting can quite outdo is the dialogue and script is rather shocking , cheesy does not quite cover it. The clicheed and badly written story and characters are further evidence as to reasons why  the Spirit was met with such animosity. There is some humour but it is woefully ineffective. As a reviewer in my time I have seen many horrible films but I seriously find myself struggling to decide which is better this or balls of fury.  The only people I can see enjoying this film are those who are very and I mean very fond of the comic book or can accept style over substance. As far as I can see the only reason to watch the Spirit is for its downright excellent visuals but a movie needs to be more than pretty to engage and appeal to its audience.
Sadly the ending to the film suggests the possibility of a sequel , I would like to try and maintain a sense of optimism and maybe hope that it improves on this failure.
This barely gets two starts and only due to the appearance of the film itself.

Verdict: **