The Spirit Movie Review

A MOVIE about a comic book classic by the man who wrote The Dark Knight Returns, 300, co-directed Sin City and inspired Batman Begins?

Surely Zeus himself would shave his beard for a chance to see this!

But the truth is, it isn't great or even good for that fact. It's a convoluted mess of camp acting, boring brutality and tedious dialogue.

Based on the comic book by Will Eisner, The Spirit sees the hero of the same name (Gabriel Macht) in a battle to rid Central City of the criminal mastermid, Octopus (Samuel L Jackson). As the story unfolds it's revealed that they two actually share a hidden secret, which is key to both their powers.

It's a typical Frank Millar story- anti hero seeking redemption, lots of gritty undertones, a vigilante with a physcotic obsession over the protection of his city and lots of dames, with guns.

So cue 120 minutes of comic book mythology winks, lots of green screen action, a pair of Converse All Star Chucks, a cameo from "I'm the God damn, Batman" writer himself and Samuel L Jackson in a Nazi uniform, what do you have?

One of the biggest let downs in comic book movie history.

The film screams "I'm a comic book movie!" in your face and while it looks great, it does have an abundance of other problems that bring it down.

Is that it doesn't sound as half good as it looks. The acting is disjointed and the dialogue spoken awkwardly and amiss. The script would probably play out well if it was a graphic novel, not a full blown movie.

The stunning Eva Mendes puts in a decent performance as Sans Serif, while Sam Jackson is just weird as the Octopus and Gabriel Macht is allright in the film's lead role.

I have to say though that the biggest disappointment here is that, as a fan of Frank Millar's works, his solo directorial debut was overly hyped and ultimately a huge let down for everyone looking forward to this movie.

The Spirit is out on in Cinemas nationwide.