Even though I might diminish some of my nerd-cred, I'm going to admit that I'm not familiar with Will Eisner's The Spirit (In my defense, I was much more interested in contemporary Marvel stuff). But I am familiar with Frank Miller thanks to Sin City and 300. I remember seeing the black and white footage coupled with selective oversaturation of Sin City, and the hyper-stylized look of 300 and being fascinated with the way directors were translating comic books to film.
Now comes Miller's rendition of Eisner's comic (I find it ironic that the first movie Miller is directing solo isn't based on his own source material--Sin City was co-directed by him and Robert Rodriguez, while 300 was directed by Zack Snyder), and he's now using the black and white concept of Sin City and the CG style of 300 and building on them for The Spirit
I mean, just check out the stylized movie posters...
The Spirit (Gabriel Macht) was originally a detective named Denny Colt who was killed, but was resurrected and continues to fight crime behind a mask that is clearly as effective as Clark Kent's glasses. His nemesis is The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson), a man who has a thing for the number 8, and who wants to destroy the city. Of course, The Spirit must stop him and along the way, he is either helped or hindered by many, many, many women including Sand Serif (Eva Mendez), Dr Ellen Dolan (Sarah Paulson), Silken Floss (Scarlett Johansson), Lorelei Rox (Jamie King).
Wow, because playing Christmas music in the back of a trailer and naming your movie and main character "The Spirit" will instantly make your movie The Perfect Christmas Movie. Don't you just feel all happy, warm and fuzzy and as the snow falls and--wait, at 10 seconds, doesn't Sarah Paulson look just like Kristen Wiig in that shot?
Okay, totally not buying the Christmas trailer. Let's try this again.
Bigger guns, bigger explosions, bigger stunts, bigger everything. Still not what I would call Christmas, but a much better trailer as things are beginning to make much more sense. Definitely interested in how this turns out--and even if it ends up being a giant mess of carnage like 300 was, well, the style is amazing enough to make me want to watch it either way.
Yeah, I'm not buying that Christmas trailer either. But I love Frank Miller's style, and while I wasn't a huge fan of 300, I don't think it'd stop me from seeing this film.
I was actually already intrigued by the Christmas trailer... :X