Reviews thread

I dunno, he hated Batman & Robin and Ghost Rider
 
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/39470

I've read this reveiw, it's negative but I think it's more reasonable and readable than the previous review.

Before people go "Hey, it's AICN" keep this in mind: I've always gave AICN credit for their advance reviews. In most cases they are outside sources and fairly accurate.

I'm not saying that The Spirit is an awful movie (I have to see it) but when there's SMOKE THERE'S FRIGGIN' FIRE. This review in particular is more specific in why he didn't like it, despite (kinda) liking Sin City.
 
Octoberist said:
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/39470

I've read this reveiw, it's negative but I think it's more reasonable and readable than the previous review.

Before people go "Hey, it's AICN" keep this in mind: I've always gave AICN credit for their advance reviews. In most cases they are outside sources and fairly accurate.

I'm not saying that The Spirit is an awful movie (I have to see it) but when there's SMOKE THERE'S FRIGGIN' FIRE. This review in particular is more specific in why he didn't like it, despite (kinda) liking Sin City.
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Agreed. I'm not the biggest fan of paid critics, as they tend to make money from abusing art on some level, but where there's smoke, there is fire... and this film is smelling like a charnal house.

Or, to put it another way... if enough people say you're a horse, you ought to consider saddling up... and Miller and his film have had plenty of people say it looks and sounds like a... well... pony... the 'one trick' kind...
 
ManBat & RogueTrooper, you need to go defend the honor of Miller in the Punisher WarZone threads... everyone THERE is saying he's a hack with a ******ed film, too... and that's in a thread dedicated to WARZONE!!! :huh:

dft-313 said:
On the topic of The Spirit - it's amazing how Miller has gone for the least interesting elements of the character and went the OTT route. Typical Miller since he had his unit sucked for Dark Knight Returns. He's really done nothing genuinely remarkable since Ronin.
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Nivek said:
I have 0 interest to see The Spirit. I know Frank is looking at this as a love letter to Eisner, but honestly, it's Frank Millers version of the Spirit. He should have done Sin City 2 while he had the chance instead of screwing up his career doing this, pi$$ing off fans and making something that looks like a Sin City sequel when it is not.
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Oh no! Quick! Stop them before everyone finds out that Miller is a talentless hack who has made a completely unappealing film.

http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?p=16128509#post16128509
 
New review from Newsarama:
http://www.newsarama.com/film/081218-the-spirit-review.html
Movie Review - Lionsgate's 'The Spirit'
By Lucas Siegel
posted: 18 December 2008 10:59 am ET

I went into director Frank Miller's big screen adaptation of comic book legend Will Eisner's The Spirit with few pre-conceived notions. Having only read a small number of Eisner's original comics, I didn’t know much about the character going in. But on the other hand, with the previews and trailers seeming to indicate this movie would be Sin City 1.5 in terms of art direction, I knew enough about the comic books to know that this style might conflict a bit with the source material.

Despite this conflict, or perhaps because of it, somewhere inside The Spirit is a great film. Its potential can be seen in bits and pieces all over the screen, making it all the more disappointing when it just never quite follows through on that potential.

First, comic book fans should know ahead of time that there are some major changes from comic-to-screen. Changes to characters are made to seemingly make them work better for a two-hour live-action movie, and possibly to make The Spirit more familiar to fans of other recent successful superhero films, leading to a few awkward moments.

Some of the acrobatics that title character performs for example just seem strange. Not cool ... not “wow” ... just strange. Most of these moments occur in the high-action scenes, and can pull the viewer right out of the rest of the movie.

These moments, however, were contrasted by mostly great dialogue by director/screenwriter Miller, and some effective one-on-one interaction between the various actors. The scenes between The Spirit and each of the film's bevy of leading ladies always entertained. Each of these women had their own unique strength and style, and they all stood out at one point or another as if they were the star of the film.

Eva Mendes as Sand Saref particularly clearly seemed to enjoy her role. She played the sexed-up ultra-thief well, but her character never seemed fully developed, like part of her story wound up on the cutting room floor.

The best chemistry on screen, however, belonged to The Spirit and Commissioner Dolan. Gabriel Macht and Dan Lauria at the same time seemed like old friends (which, as it turns out, in real life they are), student/mentor, and foils pitted against one another. Their give-and-take was spectacular, and a real highlight of the film.

Samuel L. Jackson’s Octopus was the least established of the characters pulled from the comics, and at times came off as a caricature. 'Over the top' doesn’t do justice to the ridiculousness of Jackson's portrayal. If the respected actor dialed it down about 70%, then it would have been over the top.

Again, Miller's dialogue shined in Octopus' conversations with The Spirit, but any time he wasn’t directly addressing the hero, Jackson just came off as goofy. There was never any menace or threat inherent in the character, and while that may have been intentional, it never felt right.

All these supporting players revolve around the titular one, of course, and Macht does a good job throughout, peppered with moments of greatness, shining in particular while playing off his co-stars. In his rare moments of solo on-screen time, his presence just isn’t quite strong enough to stay compelling, and the shift to almost entirely cartoony shots mixed in with those strange acrobatics doesn’t help.

Visually, despite the impression the trailers may leave, the Sin City-ish effects and art direction does not in fact dominate the film. There are lots of other colors other than the ultra-noir black & white, and more "realistic" settings throughout the movie, with the ultra-stylized moments chiefly occurring during The Spirit’s patrols and monologues.

These sequences wind up coming off oddly, with the transitions in and out of near-animation a bit too jarring and unnatural.

The mosh of comedic banter and noir-ish drama worked well for the most part, but ultimately, those aforementioned moments of potential that flash and peek out now and again are too far and few between to save The Spirit from being a disappointment.. The deviations from the comic book source material may also bug die-hards, but because Eisner's creation is much less known to more mainstream audiences than some other iconic superheroes that likely won't be a widespread problem.

If this film does well enough to rate a sequel, and with some more directorial seasoning under Miller's belt, perhaps future installments could achieve the greatness this one just frustratingly teases. As it stands, The Spirit does a precarious balancing act juxtaposing great moments and terrible ones, leaving audiences likely be split over which makes the greater impression.

Lionsgate's The Spirit opens December 25, 2008
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Antonello Blueberry said:
New review from Newsarama:
http://www.newsarama.com/film/081218-the-spirit-review.html
Click to expand...


I'm glad to hear that the dialogue is better than the samples given in the trailers and clips.

I'm not surprised that everything else that everyone has been saying (other than Manbat) seems to be accurate, regarding flawed characterization and the absurdly bad acrobatics that did NOT exist in the source material.

I knew the Octopus would be **** and there has not been one claim denying that... other than Manbat, but he has motives...

This review reminds me of the part of Miller's interview with Eisner where he brags that he is "honking the religous fans of the characters" because people who actually care about the characters are idiots, and we "see them as hallowed ground. I see them as fun toys".
 
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The rating was hilarious: "F: Give this movie the finger". :yay:


The part about the city looking like the backdrop of an elementary school play is great, but the end is gold...

"As for Miller. What were you thinking? Just because Robert Rodriguez asked you to aid him on 'Sin City' and dropped out of the DGA just to get you credit doesn't mean you're a director. So many young filmmakers are struggling to get pictures made and you get your hands on millions and develop this crap? Then you expect your fans to hand over their hard earned money to see it? I lost whatever faith I had in you Frank. SO IF YOU SEE ME IN PUBLIC ONE DAY, CROSS TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STREET FRANK! CROSS TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STREET!"
 
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IDrawDeadPeople said:
ManBat & RogueTrooper, you need to go defend the honor of Miller in the Punisher WarZone threads... everyone THERE is saying he's a hack with a ******ed film, too... and that's in a thread dedicated to WARZONE!!! :huh:

h no! Quick! Stop them before everyone finds out that Miller is a talentless hack who has made a completely unappealing film.

http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?p=16128509#post16128509
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I couldn't care less about two fans of Punisher War Zone who don't like Frank Miller.
 
IDrawDeadPeople said:
These days, people everywhere don't like Frank Miller.
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He may have seemed 'golden' after Sin City and 300 were box offices successes, but his work on ASBandR and the Spirit film are going in the opposite direction for Frank.
 
IDrawDeadPeople said:
These days, people everywhere don't like Frank Miller.
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"These days"? This is nothing new. There were a lot of people that didn't like Miller back in the '80s. Miller has always been controversial. You either love his work or hate it.

For example, Darren Madian wrote in Amazing Heroes 120, July 1 1987, the following:
"Miller took a very credible and interesting character and made him into an unadmirable, unsympathetic, borderline psychotic. Miller had already done this once to Daredevil; perhaps three years down the line, Miller is planing to write a six-issue mini-series in which Batman is framed by Boss Thorne, loses his mansion, his fortune, and his friends, and is only redeemed by the return to his life of Silver St. Cloud, who now has leprosy and is an alcoholic. Bruce Wayne will get a job cooking hamburgers in a Crime Alley diner while patrolling the streets at night as a grim driven avenger. Now, I don't really think this is too awfully likely, but you never know..personally, I'd much rather see Batman return to being the World's Greatest Detective and actually outthink his opponents, rather than being The World's Greatest Face-Breaker who spends all his time putting them in the hospital. I've always had a weakness for heroes I can admire, and the All New All Different Batman just ain't that."

Fred L. DeBoom wrote in Detective 576, July 1987, "With so much hype about the grim and (in my opinion) unappealing Batman from the DARK KNIGHT, it's nice to see that the "old" style Batman can find an audience."

Dana Fine also wrote in Detective 576, "Those tragic future shadows in Miller's DARK KNIGHT saga won't really happen will they? God forbid!"

Frank Miller said in the documentary Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked, "In the mainstream media it (Batman: The Dark Knight Returns) got a great deal of attention, positive and negative, mostly positive, but within the comics industry it was the closest thing to a bar fight that I had ever encountered, in that it was quite controversial. I actually got called up by former Batman writers telling me I had 'ruined their character.'"
 
You must be under the delusion that anyone besides you and Miller care at all about Miller and his 'controversial' reputation. Wow. He's a maverick. With as much to offer as McCain.
 
IDrawDeadPeople said:
You must be under the delusion that anyone besides you and Miller care at all about Miller and his 'controversial' reputation. Wow. He's a maverick. With as much to offer as McCain.
Click to expand...

WIth all these on hand quotes about Miller, maybe he's Miller's personal publicist?
 
IDrawDeadPeople said:
You must be under the delusion that anyone besides you and Miller care at all about Miller and his 'controversial' reputation. Wow. He's a maverick. With as much to offer as McCain.
Click to expand...

So you are discussing someone which you have no interest in. Wow.
 
mego joe said:
WIth all these on hand quotes about Miller, maybe he's Miller's personal publicist?
Click to expand...

Miller's personal publicist wouldn't have negative on hand quotes about Miller.
 
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