It has become a habit for me to watch movies every weekend on television. A few weeks back, I was able to catch the movie, Teeth, through Star Movies. Last weekend, I was able to catch The Spirit.
When I watched the movie, I initially thought that it was directed by Quentin Tarantino because the style is somewhat the same (without blood and all that gore though). Apparently, the Spirit is an adaptation of a comic book series & it was directed by Frank Miller. If you’ve watched Sin City and 300, you will sense the same feel all throughout the movie, but just a fair warning, don’t expect these movies, expect The Spirit to be really more unique and light.
The Spirit was a flop which was quite surprising because I find it quite entertaining and good. The movie had a great cast too including Samuel Jackson, my favorite Eva Mendes, the beautiful Scarlett Johansson, Jaime King & Gabriel Macht.
Let me share the main characters & their roles before I share the plot in this post, I think it will be much easier to understand that way:
- The Spirit (also Denny Colt) – the main character of the movie. Played by Gabriel Macht. He is a former police officer who was killed in the line of duty, but because of a serum that was injected into him, he came back to life and is basically indestructible. He is the protector of the city.
- The Octopus – played by Samuel L. Jackson, is the villain of the movie and the arch enemy of The Spirit. He is actually the one who injected the serum into The Spirit, and thereafter also injected himself with the serum. Thus, he is also as indestructible as The Spirit.
- Silken Floss – played by the sexy Scarlett Johansson, she’s sort of the sexy assistant to The Octopus.
- Sand Saref – played by Eva Mendes, is an international and famous thief. She is actually the childhood love of Denny Colt who has become The Spirit.
- Ellen Dolan – the doctor that takes care of The Spirit when he becomes wounded and injured and needs to recover. She is also the current love interest of The Spirit, and to make the connections even more interesting, she’s also the daughter of the police commissioner.
I can describe the movie as a lighter take of Sin City the movie, a fun and entertaining and sometimes over the top movie which I think really does justice to comic books too. The Spirit, the main character of the movie, having been resurrected, is an indestructible crime fighter for the city. He has shown great love for the city and has vowed to be its protector.
He is also known to be charming, having women and girls fall in love with him just by a simple meeting with him. He however has had two great loves, 1 is Sand Saref who he fell in love with when he was very young. Unfortunately, due to Sand’s father’s death, they separated. Sand became a well-known jewel thief and had an encounter with Octopus who is Spirit’s arch enemy. Ellen Dolan, on another hand, is the Spirit’s doctor who is very much inlove with him and patiently waiting for him each time to heal him from his wounds. At the ending, the Spirit and Sand did say goodbye to each other. The Spirit looked to be with Ellen at the end.
Silken Floss is Octopus assistant. They used Denny as their test subject for the serum they created that is supposed to be an elixir of life for immortality. Octopus also took the same serum after the test and now seeks for more power by trying to acquire the blood of Heracles which is in Sand’s hands. During the encounter, Octopus got Golden fleece which was the one that Sand wanted. Sand & Octopus got into an agreement for an exchange.
Towards the end of the movie was the encounter between Sand, Octopus & the Spirit w/c for me is the highlight of the movie. I loved how the movie was played out. Well, I think I’m a bit biased as Eva Mendes is one of my favorite American actresses. I had actually wished for Sand & The Spirit to continue their love affair but I guess superheroes don’t really have a love life coz they are tied to the city they are protecting. And actually in the end, it was Ellen Dolan, the doctor that The Spirit chose, but she realizes that The Spirit has a big burden of protecting the city and concludes that they can never be together. I won’t describe the entire movie in detail, but I can tell you that the plot isn’t overly complicated, it’s basically good guy versus bad guy, and the good guy winning in the end. It’s just a bit different because, just like Spiderman, it seems that the superhero really has to choose between love and being a protector of the city and its citizens.
I would not consider this a must-watch movie but it’s a nice movie to catch when you have time. I think if you go into the movie expecting a very light comic book adaptation, and to not take it too seriously, but just enjoy the sequences, then you will really enjoy it. I think, as a superhero, The Spirit is really brought to life with the way he was portrayed in the movie. The Octopus also was a great over the top character that I also enjoyed. So much life in his character, very corny at times, and the costumes were just a great way of reminding me during the movie that this was indeed a great comic book come to life. It’s supposed to be fiction, and in that aspect, it really was refreshing and fun to watch!
My rating for The Spirit: 4 out of 5 stars.
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