I loved Sin City and 300. I like film noir. Samuel L. Jackson has been my hero since Pulp Fiction. The trailers and previews had me hoping this movie would be as good as the hype. Alas, The Spirit is lacking, well…spirit. The elements of cast, script, and cinematography just didn’t come together for me. The noir aspect didn’t quite come off. The fast over the top dialog quickly became inane and lacked the sincerity needed to sell it. Watch The Maltese Falcon and listen to the exchanges between Bogart and Lorrie, or Bogart and Bacall in The Big Sleep. Just as preposterous, but you accept it and believe people may actually talk like that. The visuals are good a la Sin City, but we’ve already seen Sin City many times and would like something different. Gabriel Macht isn’t bad, but he doesn’t make a memorable superhero crime-fighter. Jackson is too cartoonish as a mad scientist. The costume changes for every scene are cute and the best part of the film is waiting to see what Scarlet Jo will be wearing. That’s not enough for me. If you were dying for a big screen adaptation of your favorite cult comic, then you may not be too disappointed. But if you want really good films watch any of those mentioned above and add The Asphalt Jungle, Double Indemnity, Key Largo, The Killers, Out of the Past, Laura, and many others of the classic noir period. You’ll see where many standard film techniques were born.