First, let's get this out of the way: I'm a comic book fan. But, I was never a fan of 'The Spirit', because despite what you might have heard, The Spirit is NOT a comic book movie.
Despite how it was marketed, The Spirit is not Batman, and is in fact, fairly faithful to it's roots. You see, Will Eisner's The Spirit comes straight out of the Sunday funnies, and as such has more in common with comic strips like 'Popeye' and 'Dick Tracy' than comic books.
So, not surprisingly, the closest big screen comparisons to The Spirit is Robert Altman's Popeye, and Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy - namely, live action cartoons.
Now, viewed as the live action equivalent of the Road Runner, The Spirit doesn't look so bad - certainly not as bad as most of the critic reviews it got. Yes, it's long on style and short on substance, but in some ways is longer on substance than the other two Frank Miller productions to hit the big screen (the overrated The 300 and Sin City). And, yes, it's another movie of actors acting in front of green screens and not particularly strongly directed - but plotwise, it holds up better than some of the other ventures of that ilk (Casshern, Sky Captain and the World of Tommorow, etc.).
But like Popeye and Dick Tracy, it's also of about the same quality of those movies - an interesting diversion, full of eye candy, but not a movie you'd want to see over and over again. Chances are if you like those two films you'll like this one, and if you hated them (like most critics), you'll hate this too.
But, the rapid fire film noir dialog, cartoony look, and the deadpan gags can make it worth a viewing, provided you're in the right frame of mind.
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