Will Eisner is arguably one of the most genius comic creators of our time, with a wicked sense of humour and irony. So who better to create a movie based on one of his most famous pulp serials, than another comic creator with a wicked sense of irony and the artistic, right?
Well, wrong actually.

Check the trailer here

The Spirit is a good movie, but whether it’s like the original comic that spawned it is up for a very long debate. The problem here is that it is, through to its spirit, a Frank Miller film. Perhaps not quite as stylised as Miller’s comics, and his cinematic take on Sin City
Problematically, Miller basically takes over the franchise in this manner, with slick CGI visuals that are amazingly ‘noire’. Fake environmental effects, fake lightning effects, a tie that could go head to head in a fight with Spawn’s cape from his own film… Well, you get the picture.
The casting was a bit odd too. Whilst the characters manage to pull off the amazingly hammy acting required of film-noire, they themselves don’t seem to fit the roles.
Samuel Jackson as “The Octopus” really doesn’t work for me, even though he does manage to act decently enough. I suppose it’s because I expect him to conclude that what was inside Marcellus Wallace’s briefcase was Jason’s Golden Fleece (That’ll make sense when you watch the movie). But where it really doesn’t work, and starts stepping into Tarantino Territory is when Miller actually casts himself in a cameo role.
Sorry Frank, you’re no Tarantino. You’re a great cartoonist, but Tarantino actually makes films that look different from each other. The only thing that stopped 300 from falling into this trap was that you forgot to add the iPod colour filter.
I realise I’m being negative here, but this is because this is one film that really didn’t live up to its source material. Hellboy managed this with a fair degree of aplomb. Maybe you should start doing some projects with Mignola to get reeled back in.

So I’m not really sure whether I recommend this movie or not.
Let’s put it this way: Did you like the film adaptation of Dick Tracey or The Shadow?

So as it turns out, buying shit makes you depressed. To anyone that’s a goth, this really shouldn’t come as a surprise. I can’t remember the last time getting a new album from the Cure or some Framing Hanley tracks on my iPod made me feel much better.
Apparently materialistic societies are much more depressed than non-materialistic societies. Now, I could be wrong here, but I get the feeling that education has something to do with it. Materialistic societies are modern societies and modern societies are educated. Education comes with this thing called “Geography classes”, where you sit and stare at pictures of happy naked natives who don’t know about awesome things. Awesome things like Nintendo and looking good. They don’t have them. Their friends don’t have them. Their neighbours don’t have them. Everyone’s got nothing, and looks terrible.
So people who do know about looking good and Nintendo, because their friends look good, and their neighbours have a Nintendo… They’re going to be depressed.

Q.E. fucking D.

P.S. There’s shit to buy in other posts in the blog that Ego wrote… Buy something. It’ll make you feel better.

Next up, my review on Framing Hanley. Buy their music. It’ll make you feel depressed.