So, we went and saw The Spirit at the Pacific Place today.
It's the latest Frank Miller movie, with all that that entails.
Mild to medium spoilers below.
Overall, I enjoyed it. More interestingly, cjo enjoyed it. It's a very pretty movie. Not much gore, and what gore there is is a shade unrealistic. For instance, blades painted a bright red.
It's an adaptation of a Will Eisner comic book series, screenplay by Frank Miller. The Spirit used to be a cop, until something happened to him that turned him into the Spirit. In the course of the movie, we learn what happened to him and why. His chief nemesis is the Octopus, who's another human who's incredibly, incredibly tough. Along the way, he causes every woman he runs into along the way (all beautiful of course) to swoon.
He did a lot of monologing to himself, some of which really crossed the line from "monologue" to "speaking directly to the camera". There's also a somewhat overdone "bad guy speech telling all to bound hero" scene, with the bad guy and his hot sidekick babe dressed, for some unknown reason, in Nazi uniforms, and surrounded by Nazi symbolism.
The hot medical doctor, who has a thing for him, is also his former sweetheart from back when he was a cop. But somehow she's supposed not to have noticed that he's the same guy... despite treating him regularly. Amazing how effective a Lone Ranger mask can be!
One of the odder parts, but one I liked a lot, was the cats. There always seemed to be cats around, watching him. And they really seemed to be clued in to what's going on.
SPOILER:
And when the bad guy killed
a little kitty, that's when the Spirit seemed to decide to kill him,
as opposed to just chase after him and get into fist fights with him.
As in, that's both when the Spirit said something like "Now I'm going to
kill you because of what you did to that kitten," and when he changed
his methodology to a plan that entailed killing him.
:SPOILER
Stylistically, it was pretty cool. It was mostly live-action, but it would switch to just black-and-white outlines occasionally, or have the background turn into a simple drawn background. And it was all black and white and gray and brown, except for some bright reds, and blue eyes, and some golden glowy bits.
And it seemed to take place back in the middle of the twentieth century, except for the helicopters and cell phones and computers. And nobody drinking or smoking.
All-in-all, a pretty mixed bag, but I found it enjoyable. Even at $10.50 per person, and that for a 4:10 PM showing. Why, back when I was a kid —