> With The Spirit, Miller seems to have made a big miscalculation and it is this: just because you can appreciate something doesn't mean you can do it. I don't know much about Eisner's The Spirit, but it seems to have a light, loopy, snappy tone. But Frank Miller can't do light or loopy or snappy. He does whores, dames, guys and freaks. Miller knew what how he wanted The Spirit to come across. But it's just not in him to do it.
> Ooh! Ooh! The evil henchman seemed to be clones of officer Tootie in Car 54 where are you?
>Miller makes the mistake of believing that plots are interesting. I realize I'm as down on plots as I am on characterizations and backstory. Plots aren't inherently interesting. No one cares about the "mysterious bond" between The Spirit and The Octopus. But the question remains: if a film doesn't have characterization, plot or backstory, what's left?
>To me the film looks a lot like Sky Captain and not so much like Sin City. Harry Knowles is right. It would have looked better in a kind of super technicolor, like the super 8 of your dreams.
>I thought the women looked terrible in this film, like they were over-inked, giving them a drag-like appearance. The diffusion didn't help much. Sarah Paulson had the same vacant doll's-eye look that Audrey Tatou had in The da Vinci code.
>I was actually a bit shocked that Samuel Jackson spent much of his time in mud-caked blackface.
>The only good shot for me was the one in which young Spirit holds Sand Serif as she hangs off the end of a train. It was a nice twist on the "I'm flying" scene from Titanic. It works because there's action that tells us something about the characters. But wait, I thought I was down on characterization. Hmmm.
>Another example of bad blocking. Young Spirit and Sand Serif are rushing away from reporters. "Go away" young Spirit yells (or something like that). But he just sits there waiting for the reporter to accost him. Granted, a lot of films have moments like these, but practically every scene had these kinds of blocking problems.
>The whole film reminds me of noise film's bird scene, the one we reshot four times because it never looked right. Some effects were never meant to be.
>Miller seems to have wanted The Spirit to be a bit of a scoundrel. They needed a different kind of actor. But there's only one Harrison Ford and he's too old. They might have gone craggier, uglier, more square-jawed; tougher.
>Engagement: the dance with death stuff could have worked if something was actually happening in those scenes. Film just works differently from literature. It has to have some kind of movement.
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