The Spirit: (Not) another heroic movie
The long-awaited The Spirit has finally reached Indonesian cinemas thanks to Jive Entertainment which knocked on all doors and made an all-out effort to bring the action hero, red tie and all, to all of us holding our breath.
This latest effort from Frank Miller — the director who brought us the eye-catching effects in Sin City and the epic graphic novel 300 — tells a classic story of a hero hiding behind a mask who slinks among sky-scrappers at night to protect the city.
The hero, known as the Spirit (Gabriel Macht), is the alter ego of a dead cop who underwent experiments conducted by his nemesis, the Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson) and is cursed to live forever.
As always, the villain gets all the fun with his beautiful sidekick Silken Floss (Scarlett Johansson) and the mentally challenged clone, Phobos (Louis Lombardi).
The storyline develops around an eternal fight between the Spirit and the Octopus embellished with Hercules’ eternal blood and some shiny armor belonging to Jason of the Argonauts.
Basically the story offers no new spin on the hero-as-freak premise, so successful in the original misunderstood comic heroes portrayed in Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Spiderman, The Mask or any other good guys behind masks.
But this version, based on the comic strips by Will Eisner, begs to stand out by the added love-triangle sparkle among the Spirit, Sand Saref (Eva Mendes) and Ellen Dolan (Sarah Paulson), to show off to advantage the womanizing side of Miller’s new action hero. Somehow the added sparkle is not enough to ignite interest.
Several romantic scenes play out between the Spirit and these women, but somehow they fail to deliver the lady-killer persona already clinched by the Bruce Wayne panache.
The script didn’t offer enough good writing for the actors to build a charismatic aura. The Spirit passes us by like any man sporting a robe, fedora and red tie might, leaving no telltale charm behind as his signature.
This is Miller’s directing debut as well as his first screenplay adaptation, unlike his previous graphic novel efforts.
And Miller has finally shown his directorial Midas touch. He obviously know how to satisfy his audience’s eyes. He’s still busy playing with his visual stylistics spiced with a touch of noire already evident in his previous work, which wraps the Spirit in a cultic effect.
His signature use of red not only reflects back to his own earlier work but also to the masterpieces if stylist directors Pedro Almodovar and Wong Kar Wai.
Another new venture for Miller is the satire, slapstick and parody in the Spirit. You may get some entertaining moments from the body language carried off by Silken Floss or the oh-so-cheesy dialogue between the Spirit and the Octopus.
Disappointment still overrides. Take the scene where our hero is being tamed. The Spirit sits tied to a chair and from behind the curtain out slides the beautiful belly dancer, Plaster of Paris (Paz Vega), seductively dangerous. This scene is meant to set up the ensuing torture scene, but the momentum slips and the scene ends up adding nothing. Who pulled this one off the cutting room floor?
Then come the Octopus and Silken Floss with their Hitler parody flashing Nazi swastikas. The Hitler factor may be the influence of Eisner’s era, since he created the character in the 1940s.
Many U.S. comic strip artists draw on Nazi symbolism for their villains, and as the freaky heroes combat them we glean the strong underpinning of U.S. nationalism.
Which makes the Nazi scene all the more hilarious, but even for an audience here? Probably laughter through the theater owed something to the body language and comedy technique which reminded me of Indonesian’s comedic Ketoprak Humor, as enacted by Srimulat.
Resist the urge to hit the lobby for snacks because you do not want to miss the scene where the heroines present themselves in the Spirit’s life, especially when Sand Saref faces off with Silken Floss.
The scene was so strong it could have erased from our minds the first battle royale between the main hero and his nemesis from the first 10 minutes of the film. These two arresting women caught the audience’s attention with their beauty, guts, spunk and repartee.
Both give new meaning to the old-fashioned term girl power. You can be nasty but adorable and sexy at the same time. They make for relishing moments in a 90-minutes movie with few memorable lines to quote or a catchy soundtrack to lock in our attention on the important scenes.
One thing for sure, do not bring your under thirteens to this one. Even though the blood or the cut-off head — err.. spoiler, anyone? — are stylized and graphically uber, still it isn’t a nice inspiration for children to dream about later.
The best viewing mode is an outing with 6-7 of your gang, all adults in desperate need of a lighthearted movie heavy on effects. As Hollywood standard fare to round out your weekend, The Spirit might be a good choice.
source: www.thejakartapost.com
