"The Spirit" film due for 2008 release, directed by Frank Miller...

Fysh

Yahoo Movie News here

Shortpacked! reaction to the idea of Frank Miller directing it

Somehow, I get the feeling that this film is going to look pretty and have a story that sucks fat donkey. Oh well...

Jack B. Badd

Well, so long as it's pretty. That is the important thing...

Fysh

I dunno, I've not read much of the Spirit but it will be..."interesting" to see how it fits into Frank Miller's style. Hopefully it won't be a trainwreck but I suppose we'll see.

the Shades

Oh... I was delighted at the news of a Spirit movie, now I'm just filled with an overwhelming sense of dread.

If Miller treats The Spirit with the same in depth character knowledge he displayed for Superman in the Dark Knight books... Well it should be just as great as Robocop 2!

ActorSeeksJob

what is "The Spirit"?

Fysh

"The Spirit" was a masked crimefighter series written by Will Eisner which was pretty much a landmark in the history of comics, or at least American comics. More info here.

While I don't have high expectations of this, it's worth pointing out that Miller himself was hugely unhappy with what became of his work on Robocop 2 & 3, according to his comments referenced here. So there's at least a chance he'll surprise us all...

qwertplaywert

looking foward to....his first ''solo'' directing gig.........

the Shades

Fysh wrote:

"The Spirit" was a masked crimefighter series written by Will Eisner which was pretty much a landmark in the history of comics, or at least American comics. More info here.

While I don't have high expectations of this, it's worth pointing out that Miller himself was hugely unhappy with what became of his work on Robocop 2 & 3, according to his comments referenced here. So there's at least a chance he'll surprise us all...

But unfortunately he was happy with DK2! Can you think of any truly great (or even good) comic he's done since 2000? My mind is blank.

Fysh

the Shades wrote:

But unfortunately he was happy with DK2! Can you think of any truly great (or even good) comic he's done since 2000? My mind is blank.

Ah. Ah. See, that changes everything. I believe the phrase "Oh dear" can pretty much summarise my expectations of this film now...

qwertplaywert

aye
imo its impossible for him to top his DKR work,and he is living under his own huge shadow
that said,all his stuff since then has been pretty good[even all star batman- not nearly as bad as some peeps made it out to be]

Fysh

OK, there I have to disagree. Dark Knight Strikes Back was, for me at least, a huge let down compared to DKR. Where the original pared back the involvement in the DCU of the core characters, DKSB ramps it up and goes overboard to show that there are other heroes around.

And All Star Batman And Robin? Pretty good? Them's contentious words! Especially when the comic in question contains segments like this:

Frank Miller's All-Star Batman & Robin The Boy Wonder wrote:

Dick Grayson: Who the hell are you anyway, giving out orders like this?
Batman: What, are you dense? Are you retarded or something? Who the hell do you think I am? I'm the goddamn Batman.

Dick Grayson: You're out of your mind! You're nuts!
Batman: Nuts? You want to see nuts, kid? I'll show you nuts!

I mean, if nothing else, having Batman say "I'll show you nuts!" to Robin in a serious scene, when the whole Batman/Robin subtext is already far from subtle, was exceptionally poor judgement. But "crackilicious" doesn't even begin to describe Miller's version of Batman in here.

Thinking about it, I haven't read anything much of his recent work (as in, within the last 5 years) and now I'm not sure I'd want to...

Jack B. Badd

Batman: What, are you dense? Are you retarded or something? Who the hell do you think I am? I'm the goddamn Batman.

I think this shall have to become my quote of the week and the response to every idiotic question I'm ever forced to answer!

the Shades

Ah yes DK2. The first issue actually wasn't bad and the scene with the Atom right before they find him was very good. But one little oasis doesn't make a desert fertile. The rest of teh story pretty much focussed on Superman and all it achieved was to show that Miller knows nothing about the character. Maybe he has actually at one stage read one Superman comic, but it wasn't in any way evident here.

I'd like to think of something nice to say about it but everyone screwed up. Lynn Varley's colours were nauseating when she has previously achieved some of the best colouring in comics and it all just seemed to fall apart. There were massive delays while it was being produced (another new Miller trend) and you just go the feeling that he didn't know how to end it when he started and really didn't care half way through.

300 was probably his last original work. Sin City was great for two or three arcs but then it just became a repetitive cycle of whores and bullets. He's a great visual storyteller and has produced some wonderful art but his dialogue is steadily unravelling to George Lucas quality (See quote above) and yeah I'll admit I lost interest after DK2.

qwertplaywert

never read 300...proberly will get around it to sooner rather than later.....was dissapointed with DKSB, but that was to be expected.it was still a pretty good comic

the Shades

300 was an ok comic but as usual Miller had his 'I'm so macho' dialogue and I dunno I find he's a bit like Garth Ennis, after four or five different projects using the same ol' tricks and the same ol' style I get bored and move onto fresher more inventive pastures.

M. Sean McManus

I've got a bad feeling about this... but I'm hoping for the best.