The Spirit: TRAILER.

Oh. My. God.

Yeah, I'm soooo gonna see that.

He didn't do his research...

The film isn't going to be in black and white

Unless you are joking, he didn't say it was going to be. He was referring to Miller's approach to storytelling. And only has it been recently confirmed that the film is indeed in color. ALL the marketing so far has presented this as aesthetically mirroring Sin City. That is a big mistake I think.

David, Miller has recently claimed that he believes that Eisner's original intent had probably been to make the suit black, but due to the limitations of the four-color printing he had to make it blue instead... like say comparable to the highlights in Superman's hair. Which I just do not buy at all. Never at any point have I seen the Spirit's suit presented in that way by Eisner. It was blue, pure and simple.

Miller claims that he is trying to stay true to the, eh, spirit of Eisner's character but when the tagline for the film so far is "my city screams", how can we possibly believe that. That's the kind of dialogue that Eisner would parody on occasion in the strip.

I personally want to see Will Eisner's "the Spirit". Very little excited me as much as hearing the Spirit was going to the big screen (Watchmen and Shadow were the only contenders). Frank Miller being named director shot my hopes right down. The trailer...well, the guy's blog sums up my feelings too.

So maybe you're right, Ramon. Maybe this is what modern audiences want. Not "the Spirit", but rather "Frank Miller's Spirit-Derivative in Sin City", but it's not what I want. I expect little from the movie, and may not even go see it now.

And no, the red tie didn't look cool to me. Very little about the trailer made me interested.

Take care
Don

Wouldn't a dark blue have worked just fine? But the color of the suit is really a minor point. Nobody's asking for Dick Tracy here. It is symbolic however of what Miller is doing to The Spirit. When his work is adapted it has been very faithful to his vision, but when he is given the opportunity to do the same... he is only faithful to his vision. And it's not just any ol' comic character either. He is "reinterpreting" the comic strip by which all other comic work is measured and the creator of which who is widely regarded as THE master of the form. Is Miller not confident enough in his directorial ability to bring that creator's vision to life?

This "city is my lover" mess? Seriously. I read someone compare Denny Colt to an urban Indiana Jones once and thought that was spot on. So to make a fair comparison, would it have seemed right to have Blade Runner-type voice overs in Raiders of the Lost Ark? And with the Octopus, I concede that it would have been next to impossible to use the character without showing him in the film, but from the photos shown we've gone from a villain who is deftly proficient at disguise and subterfuge, to a supervillain so flamboyant that he looks like he either just walked out of Austin Powers or The Matrix. I really can't decide which.

I really hope I'm wrong and by some freak chance this movie works, but I guess we'll see.

With me, this is a totally different case. I never read the Spirit. But I did see the trailer when I saw the Dark Knight. So for me, I have to look at it just as a movie-goer and all I gotta say is, it looks like it's visually beautiful(Frank Miller's choice to make it like Sin City) but I just kind of choked on my popcorn when I saw Samuel L. But this could just be the previews. Like I said I know little to nothing about the Spirit. So I don't really have an opinion yet but just as someone who's new to the Spirit, it looks decent to me...but not great.

He didn't direct 300 and he only co-directed Sin City. Just because he's using someone else's material for this, his second (or first movie considering if you count a codirecting credit) movie, doesn't mean he should totally change his aesthetic. That's like learning how to swim in the deep end.

I honestly doubt we'd be seeing a Spirit movie at all if Frank Miller didn't want to get this done.

Exactly. I was thinking the same thing when I saw the trailer before the Dark Knight.

why is that brandon?

Oh, I had no idea you were against female empowerment.

OH yeah, because the Spirit is as popular in mainstream culture as Batman is...

It's not like saying that at all John.

No, I've against once-great comic creators hacking out all their work and get praised for it.

What the hell does that have to do with the initial point that if not for Frank Miller's wanting to do the Spirit it might not even be being made into a movie?



That's funny considering he is in the position to do what he wants these days because his comics sell like crazy despite what internet fanboys think of them. It's also funny that you made a reference to Carrie Kelly as if the lowest point in his career was Dark Knight Returns.

Well, thanks for lumping me into the category of "internet fanboys" but I'll wear that title without shame. I am on the internets, I am a fan, and contrary to what you may have heard I do in fact have boy parts. Besides, "fanboys" is so passe. Next time time try "babymen".

I reference Carrie Kelly because yes I do believe he's been riding off the reputation of his earlier work. To me personally, everything he does now is a caricature of what he used to be capable of producing.

I'm also with John on that I have no problem with Frank Miller being Frank Miller and doing his manly man noir schtick for the rest of his days if that's what makes him money and makes his fans happy. But why not do it to his own characters? If The Spirit is being sold on Frank's name and style, why even use Eisner's work to begin with?