The Spirit of the title dies and comes back to fight evil. There are a comic book hero, villain, and a bunch of women. It's really not worth going into too much detail about other than noting Samuel L. Jackson gives a Hall of Fame over-the-top bad guy performance. Where it isn't just gorgeous to look at, you get a fair amount of so-campy-it's-fun.
The most surprising thing about Frank Miller's version of Will Eisner's The Spirit is that it's not utterly awful. It doesn't work as a whole, but like many movies that fail at the box office, it actually has more redeeming value than plenty of movies that cross the $100 million mark.
It's high camp to be sure, the kind of thing that used to carry the "comic book movie" stereotype: hyperbolic dialogue and action paired with cartoonish sets and visuals. The difference here is Miller's personal sense of style. If he was going primarily monochromatic, I would have preferred he go all or nothing. The comparisons (unfair though they may be) to Sin City are inspired directly by this.
Taken on its own, The Spirit is interesting to look at beyond the "morbid curiosity" you may see mentioned in other reviews. People will mention that this is Miller's first solo directing effort, and I sincerely hope it isn't his last. This outing was imperfect, but he has better chops than many first-time directors I could name.
Video & Audio
Enemies of grain will be glad to see that this all-digital production is fully devoid of it. It makes even dirty scenes look clean. Seriously, though. One of the best Video masters I've seen for Blu-ray is coupled with a flawless 7.1 Audio track for one of the best tech demo discs I've seen so far.
Extras
Green World
A look at the greenscreen process they used, a la Sin City. Nothing too revelatory if you've seen how it's done elsewhere.
Miller on Miller
A Frank Miller bio piece that's mostly retread for those who follow Miller's work and career.
History Repeats
A piece that covers the history of the character and creator Will Eisner. Of the three featurettes, this is the most worth your time.
Animated Alternate Ending
Samuel L. Jackson and Gabriel Macht provide voiceover on this ending that got tossed. More engaging than similar "storyboard" cut scenes on other releases thanks to the extra production value lent to it.
Feature Audio Commentary
Frank Miller and producer Deborah Del Prete
BD-Live: MoLog (requires internet connection)
This is one of the type of networked features people don't really use on other titles, like "chat while you and a friend watch the movie!" that I don't see many people engaging in using. This blog-ish feature is kind of a neat idea that people might think no one will use on a theatrical disappointment. To the contrary, there are a fair number of people, bloggers even, who love these types of features with flaws like my pal Scott Weinberg and I, who both share an unapologetic soft spot for Sky Captain. It'll be interesting to see if and what kind of community grows out of this thing.
This and the other BD-Live features are the first for a Lionsgate Blu-ray. As time-draining as they could potentially be, I wonder about how many people aside from gamers have their Blu-ray players connected to the net.
Theatrical Trailer
Small quibble here: any other promo spots or anything are a nice historical record of the thing. Believe it or not, universities use DVDs for case studies in advertising.
Digital Copy
Any studio selling Blu-ray would be wise to include these so that consumers don't go looking for excuses to illegally rip their physical copies. I've actually watched my digital copies of WALL-E and Hellboy 2 more than once each. It'd be nice if there weren't a price premium to Special Editions that include Digital Copies. Just a bug I'll keep in the studios' ears.
Final Thoughts
This is a pretty impressive release for something that so spectacularly opened and closed last December. That being said, the movie doesn't work as a whole, but it's still worth watching on the Blu-ray release. The extras are not comprehensive, but they're about as much as one can expect this title to see for the rest of its life. You probably have no interest if you saw it and hated it (which doesn't cover many people, since so few saw it), but it's worth tossing in and even buying blind for those who want to pick up a thing or two about how complex, effects-driven sausage is made.