I felt the need to start a series of posts where I defend a movie that I don't get why everyone hates. Normally I understand, like why everyone hates "House of the Dead" or I'm baffled on why a movie is so popular like "Transformers". But often times there are movies that I've seen and enjoyed on some level but when I read what my fellow bloggers have to say about it, they're like "It Sucked!"
One such case of this recently was "The Spirit". I'm sorta clueless as to what the hate was about.
It was based on a graphic novel, so all the shots and lines of dialogue were lifted directly from that. Nobody complained when this was also done for "Sin City", a movie I really loved.
And when you're basing stuff from a graphic novel, certain liberties have to taken. So you really shouldn't be asking "Why is that guy flying?" or "Who really talks like that?" That's like people asking "Wouldn't Peter Parker die from radiation poisoning? And are there really radioactive spiders?"
When I go into a comic book movie, I already expect to see a bunch of ridiculous things, such as impossible stunts and awkard lines of dialogue. I don't expect Oscar worthy performances and expect to cry at the end of the film. I expect explosions, fight scenes, and horrible one-liners that'd make David Caruso blush.
Another thing people rag on about "The Spirit" is the fact it was directed by Frank Miller, who only "co-directed" one film, and that one film being "Sin City". So maybe there could've been a better choice (maybe Robert Rodriguz again? Certainly not Zach Snyder, he was busy making "Watchmen" another graphic novel movie I'm sure people are gonna bitch about) but I think Miller did an OK job. He pointed the camera. He told people what to do. I enjoyed the story and the shots. Mission accomplished.
The only thing I can figure is maybe all the people hating on this movie are hard core "Spirit" fans and didn't agree with the direction the film took. I'll admit I never heard of "The Spirit" until the movie came out and I'm sure many people haven't either. And probably as a result, more people probably looked into the graphic novel, which is something I would want if I was a graphic novel geek. Unless there's some unspoken code about only certain people can know about this piece of work and any outsiders are not welcome, go away humans GO AWAY!!
Sort of the same with me and "Watchmen". I never heard of the graphic novel until the movie came out and after looking it up on Amazon and reading the first few pages from the "Peek Inside" thing, I wanna read the whole thing, especially before I see the movie cause I hear the book is much more darker then what people are saying the movie is gonna be.
So in conclusion, while I respect every person's opinons, I don't really understand the huge hate towards "The Spirit". It'd be different if people were like "Eh, it wasn't for me" but there are people out there who are flat out angry and I don't get why. Hell, it has Eva Mendes AND Scarlet Johannson...oh that's probably it. We don't need hot chicks in our geeky little films.
Nevermind.
-Jason
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