Monday, December 29, 2008

Miller Craps On Will Eisner

UPDATE:
Frank Miller has created a Stink Fest of Epic proportions. According to movie critics, we are in Ishtar territory here and the general public seems to agree as The Sprit has tanked and tanked badly.

What's so sad about this is that Eisner was a revolutionary storyteller and now his most famous and innovative, Noir character, The Sprit, will be forever besmirched by Frank Miller's stunningly bad film.

There is a lot that can be said about this movie but I think this quote from MaryAnn Johanson's review says it the best
The Spirit does not believe in itself. It thinks comics are a joke -- and it appears to thinks that movies are a joke, too.


A sad sad time for comic book movies... and just when they were starting to get some respect.

Thanks Frank for f-ing up a legacy...

Let me add, in all fairness, that I have not seen The Spirit but I'm sure I will at some point to verify what is being said about the film. But this I do know, it was not necessary to shoot The Spirit in the same manner as 300 and Sin City.

I feel these two images sum this whole thing up.
Frank Miller's version of the Spirit on the left and an original Eisner Spirit cover on the right.


I'd much rather see a movie about that character on the right side.

UPDATE: I was talking to a guy at work last-night and he said he wanted to see the Spirit because he liked the first one...

I said "what first one?"

He replied "Sin City..."

Of course I politely corrected him that The Spirit was not a sequel


-Swinebread

10 comments:

rob! said...

wow, it debuted in 9TH place? behind The Day The Earth Stood Still?

i have not seen it either, but i'll get it on Netflix because i'm curious and i like to see any movie where Scarlett Johansen wears sexy outfits. but from the very first promo images of it, i felt like it was headed in the wrong direction, creatively, as it seemed most of us familiar with the character thought.

now we see that non-comic book reading America agrees with us!

Arkonbey said...

Thanks Frank for f-ing up a legacy...

Nah, I don't think so. All the critics cite this as Frank Miller f-ing up Frank Miller's legacy. The Onion A.V. Club said that Miller has finally fallen into self-parody territory.

I predict the whole thing will be a net win for the Eisner legacy. Non-Eisner readers will find it a piece of crap and critics will say, "well, the source material is much better" and people will try it out!

Me, I thought miller had already crapped on himself with Sin City...

Plaidstallions said...

What angers me most about this is that Miller turned down many directors for Sin City because it had to adhere to his vision.

Yet no such consideration was made for Eisner's work.

Don Snabulus said...

300 made me laugh. That style of cinematography doesn't work. Quit trying.

Swinebread said...

rob!- yes, it's just too bad it's the Spirit

arky - I hope you're right

PS - Tell me about it. Miller has a groupthink of one

snab - It made me laugh too.

Thomas Fummo said...

Man, I always disliked Miller.

I agree with Ark: I certainly hope more people will go out and search for the original Eisner comics.

Christian Zamora said...

I haven't seen the movie but I had a real bad feeling about it. Frank Miller's view of the movie environment is quite off. His dialogues are a sequence of Noir clichés and they get boring 3 minutes after things get started, and well, his vision on visuals was already exposed in Sin City and now, redoing the entire deal. I mean, his visuals are great, but that's just about it and we already saw them in Sin City, so, there's so little new to see right now.

All in all, I knew I wasn't going to see it in the theaters, but it looks like it is stinking real bad.

Eaglewing said...

I loved Sin City, both the movie and the books, but that last comment about the guy and the "first one" is just so wrong. The Spirit is not Sin City. Too bad you weren't there to politely correct Frank Miller on that assumption too when he started filming.

Steve said...

i wont see it
it's not the Spirit he just stole a title IMHO

Unknown said...

i'm the only guy who liked it i guess