I know next to nothing about The Spirit comics or Frank Miller's upcoming adaptation, but this Flash promo at Yahoo is good clean sexy fun. Each promo poster of a Spirit gal (Eva Mendes, Scarlett Johansson, Jaime King, Sarah Paulson) will say a line of dialog when you hold your mouse pointer over the image:

"Do I look like a good girl?"

What's wrong with this picture?

http://www.apple.com/trailers/lions_gate/thespirit/


Two things:

--Do you see ANYTHING in this teaser that Rodriguez didn't pioneer or teach Miller how to do? And as far as how I presume to know who did what on SIN CITY, I'll refer you to the Rodriguez/Miller commentary on the special edition dvd.

--And did you notice how awkward it looks? The movement is graceless and poorly integrated, especially the "stunts" towards the end?

So, we now know what SIN CITY would look like without Robert Rodriguez.

And, yes, I know that this is just a teaser, but if this is any indication of what's to come, I'd say that Frank Miller still has a lot to prove as the sole director of his own movie.

Of course, you could argue that the look of SIN CITY is what a Frank Miller film looks like, and he IS proving it with THE SPIRIT.

A don't really necessarily agree with my sentence above, but it's not like any of Rodriguez's other films had the SIN CITY "look"; perhaps it WAS more Miller's doing.

What I think is important is that SIN CITY and THE SPIRIT are polar opposites in comic form, and shooting THE SPIRIT in a dark, humorless fashion is the absolute wrong path to take.

This probably boils down to splitting hairs, but here is how I understood it:

Yes, Frank Miller came up with the "SIN CITY look" for his comic book series. But when it came to adapting those comics to the big screen, Rodriguez is the one who came up with the cinematic look. It's well documented in interviews and on the dvd that Rodriguez independantly produced what is now the opening scene of SIN CITY as a short film to show Miller that it could be done and lure him into the project. Of the one, Robert Rodriguez is the one better known for pushing the development of filmmaking technology.

My point wasn't the question of who came up with the look so much as how it is executed cinematically. Long before tackling SIN CITY, Rodriguez showed that he had a knack for camera movement and editing. Even if you take exception to his writing skills (or lack thereof), there's no question that he has a natural instinct for cinematic language which includes how he gets actors to move across the screen. Even if he's taking a deliberately artificial approach, the result usually looks mannered and specifically executed as envisioned.

If this SPIRIT teaser is anything to go by (especially the last few seconds), the movement of the actor and his integration into the not-quite-so-fresh-anymore production design isn't very graceful. That's what I meant about this looking SIN CITY without Rodriguez.

And again, this is just a teaser. Perhaps Miller (or those who are keeping a close eye on him) will smooth things out before the final release. But I do know that Miller now feels like a real filmmaker thanks to his experience on SIN CITY and is pursuing future projects. While I'll reserve final judgement until I see the finished product, I wonder if he has anything more to offer than a second rate knock-off of Rodriguez' approach to adapting SIN CITY.

Yeah, I seem to remember Will Eisner's "The Spirit" being loose-limbed and funny, two things I don't think Frank Miller's ever been accused of.

I remember Eisner did an updated version of "The Spirit" in the 1960s for a comics-themed edition of New York Magazine, when it was a supplement to the old Herald Tribune, and it showed the Spirit trying to do a comeback in Lindsay-era New York (30 years before, and quite the opposite of, Giuliani-era New York). I don't remember too much about it although I'm sure, as the avid budding adolescent comics fan I was, I clipped it and put it in a file somewhere. I remember the Spirit's black sidekick, Ebony, was no longer depicted in a stereotypical fashion and now had a cushy desk job with HARYOU, a federally funded youth organization, and didn't want to get involved with the Spirit again. And William F. Buckley made a cameo appearance. I think in the background, his wife was holding the phone and Lindsay's voice was coming out of it, singing, "Won't you come home, Bill Buckley, won't you come home?" That's all I recall.

Yeah, you're probably right on the money. I just felt like advocating for the devil.

“I thought your damn ninja was going to get rid of Robocop.”

I don’t mind if they use the Ennio Morricone music, but the movie looks misconceived. It has been written before, Eisner’s SPIRIT is just a more fun character. For now we are having Frank Miller’s reboot version. So far, a good example of what a Spirit movie should or could is the Robert Mitchum opus HIS KIND OF WOMAN or Cary Grant in CHARADE.

Anyways.

Anything i've seen on this film looks horrifying to me. Miller claims to be a huge Eisner fan, but it doesn't look like he remotely understands the character or anything about the original Spirit comic!

Originally he had said he was going to be faithful to the comic and Eisner's vision. Then somewhere along the line it became FRANK MILLER'S SPIRIT.

the footage i've seen of Miller at some comic con dressed in black with a red tie like the movie version of the Spirit is chilling...its hard to explain...

I think a movie like this would have worked better as a period piece. Sort of like LA Confidential, except with a little humor thrown in.

If this is actually a real trailer, then I have to believe this film is a disaster.

damn, it's been taken down!

That trailer made THE SPIRIT look like it's going to be like watching two hours of 007 title sequences.

I couldn't agree more. That trailer makes me cringe. If it wasn't labelled as The Spirit, I would never have guessed it was supposed to be related. I know Brad Bird has wanted for years to make a Spirit movie. It's so painful to be getting this instead of the respectful interpretation he would have given us. And I liked SIN CITY just fine, I'm not anti-Miller. Just pro-Eisner.

The sad irony is that Miller has been a vocal proponent of creator's rights in comics. He sure took a whiz all over Will Eisner, judging from the trailers.

Also, why does every masked superhero have to talk like Michael Keaton in BATMAN?

It's so weird that THE SPIRIT has an elaborate, specific look and style and tone and all that, but has nothing to do with The Spirit. I'm just baffled why Miller would go to all this work to come up with something that captures nothing of the comics, when recent adaptations of his own books have been so slavishly devoted to the page. He knows it can be done, so why... make this? I'm not gonna hate on it until I've seen it, but I'm confused.

spirit trailer is back up...an official one.

kind of speechless after seeing it. there isn't one speck of "will eisner" on any of that trailer...

one of the things i really thought miller would incorporate from the comic were the amazing splash pages that featured the title card, THE SPIRIT, in amazing ways...brick buildings, steam from a sewer, etc...

the eisner books are soo filled with cinematic images, and none of them are in that trailer...its scary...and sad at the same time.

when i heard that miller was going to make a spirit movie i was pretty excited...but since then, the excitement has slowly turned to chills...