The Spirit (2008) - A Review

I bought this movie as a cheap double feature. The other movie was Sin City and I mostly bought it just for that movie (and no, I haven't seen it as of this blog post). I'd heard about The Spirit, but I didn't know much more. It had Samuel L. Jackson in it so that had to be a start, right? Well, I checked the IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes rankings and saw that The Spirit wasn't quite a blockbuster in the eyes of many folks. So I decided to watch the movie anyway.

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I love movies. Good, bad, or ugly, I can always find something watchable in a movie. Even Plan 9 from Outer Space and Gigli had redeeming qualities about them. Not many, mind you. But just enough for me to say that I remember at least one scene that wasn't completely terrible.

I found a lot of things I liked about The Spirit. It's no work of art. But it's not too bad. I will say that I liked it more than 300.

But to watch this movie I believe you should be in the right mindset. Go in with few expectations, don't expect a serious superhero movie like Batman Begins, and expect Samuel L. Jackson and his goofy cohorts to lay on the cheese. Especially when it comes to eggs.

The story opens with Denny Colt (portrayed by Gabriel Macht), a man whose alter ego is the red-tie wearing Spirit. Denny Colt just happens to be dead, but for some strange reason he rose again. Colt's arch enemy in the movie is a criminal called The Octopus (portrayed by Jackson) and The Octopus is after a package that contains something called the Blood of Heracles. The Octopus (a combination of the Octopus and Dr. Cobra from the comics) and The Spirit can both take a lot of pain. They seem to share something in common other than being enemies, but the Spirit doesn't know what. And how does the Blood of Heracles fit in? Well, that's why a movie was made. Along the way an old flame of Denny Colt's, named Sand Saref (portrayed by the smokin' hot Eva Mendes), pops up and seemingly is in cahoots with the Octopus. It's up to the Spirit to find out everything and stop the Octopus from getting away with his diabolical plans.

I thought this movie was kind of like the ugly cousin of The Crow meets Mystery Men. So I guess that makes it a bad movie, but I think it's all a matter of perspective. This is a goofy movie and not all of the gags hit the mark, but I still find it entertaining and enjoyable. Samuel L. Jackson helps a lot, though. Beer would probably make the movie even better.

But, as it is, I'd recommend this movie to anyone who likes movies like Mystery Men, Judge Dredd, RoboCop 2, or Punisher: War Zone. It's really not too terrible and I'd be willing to watch this movie a few more times. If you're a stickler for details and you've read the comics then you'll probably be extremely disappointed. I haven't really read the comics so I can't say for sure, but that's typically the way these things work.