Yes, it’s another post about THE SPIRIT
Add comment December 30th, 2008
In most cases, a movie failure is more interesting than a movie success. Just look at the current box office offerings. MARLEY & ME? It’s a movie based on a best-selling book, starring Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson, and it’s about a funny, loveable dog for pete’s sake! Who didn’t expect this to be at least a moderate hit. Same with THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON. Brad Pitt. An epic story. A movie that screams “Oscar” at the same time of year people get the urge to see an Oscar-type movie. It’s success isn’t very surprising.
But this weekend also saw the release of a THE SPIRIT, a movie that died at the box office ($10.4 million isn’t exactly a DELGO-sized bomb, but it’s no DARK KNIGHT, either) and found no love from the critics, either. (a mere 15 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes).
It’s not hard to see why THE SPIRIT didn’t find an audience, but it’s still fascinating to consider (well, it is to me, anyway). It was based on a comic book few people ever heard of (the fact that it’s one of the great creations in the history of the medium doesn’t matter here) and driven by a directorial vision (courtesy of Frank Miller) that was so personal, so darned odd that it seemed designed to appeal to him and him only. For that alone it deserves points. Instead of making a cookie-cutter imitation of everything else in theaters, Miller made something personal. That doesn’t, however, make it good.
Over at Cinematical, Elisabeth Rappe wrote an interesting piece examining the film and why it ultimately didn’t work in a year dominated by comic book movies. She’s coming at it from a different perspective than most critics — as a self-proclaimed “geek,” she should’ve loved this movie — so what she says is worth a look.
