The Spirit

Comic book icon Frank Miller makes his solo directing debut by taking on "The Spirit," the creation of his mentor, Will Eisner, in this visually dynamic but narratively sketchy comic book adventure. Miller plays to his own strengths – the punch of bold, stripped-down graphic images and the self-conscious tribute-turned-parody of pulp fiction conventions – and delivers a flashy but visually static mess in which our hero (Gabriel Macht) is swamped by the flamboyant imagery and the shamelessly hammy overacting of the colorful cast (Samuel L. Jackson, Eva Mendes, Scarlett Johansson, Paz Vega and Louis Lombardi). Curiously enough, even bad genre films often feature the most lovingly produced DVD supplements, and this is no exception. "Green World" examines how and why the film looks the way it does, with plenty of production footage and detailed notes on the images taken right out of Miller's digital notepad. Miller discusses his inspirations and his career in "Miller on Miller," and participates in an appreciation of Eisner in "History Repeats" (each about 15 minutes long). The "Alternate Ending" (from Miller's storyboards and sketches, narrated by Macht) is gruesome and quintessentially Miller. The commentary by Miller and producer Deborah Del Prete isn't as interesting.