The Spirit
Lionsgate | Release Date: December 25, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
30
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
7
Negative:
15
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
The Spirit is uneven, but its campy adventure provides some amusing, escapist fun. Read full review
63
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
Should make comic modern-day fanboys happy, what with its dark undertones, its beat-it-to-a-pulp action and its sly winks at comic greats past and present. Everyone else, including fans of Will Eisner's original Spirit, may find themselves wondering what all the fuss is about. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
The result is a great-looking movie with an awkward balance of pulp noir and campy self-awareness. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
There are good things to be said about The Spirit, but not enough of them to outweigh the bad. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
As the vamps, Eva Mendes and Scarlett Johansson might be posing for a fashion spread with just one note to play -- gorgeous high-bitch mockery. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
What a shame that The Spirit isn't nearly as good as it looks. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesSam Adams
Miller's flat, humorless yarn is set in Central City, a vacant metropolis whose only residents seem to be cops and crooks. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
What is most striking about The Spirit is how little pleasure it affords, in spite of its efforts to by sly, sexy, heartfelt and clever all at once. Read full review
40
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Miller seems to have brought neither his brains nor his heart (both of which we know he's got) to this project. The style is willing. But the spirit is weak. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle Smith
With its starkly contrasted visuals (fierce blacks, Clorox whites, a dash of unholy crimson), The Spirit may resemble a comic book more than any live-action film yet made, but it makes "Max Payne" look like a gleaming jewel of storytelling by comparison. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The movie's cleverest idea is to give the Octopus identical clone henchmen with names like Phobos, Logos, and Huevos, all played by Louis Lombardi with a marvelous fat-boy idiot grin. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Maybe if there was something going with the dialogue - snappy Chandlerisms, say, or even just sentences that made sense - the fussy digital artifice of The Spirit wouldn't seem so, well, dispiriting. Read full review
38
PremiereJordan Burchette
Not charming, but not cynical, The Spirit is wholly unrecommendable, but made with greater care than many movies that are. Read full review
30
VarietyJustin Chang
Plunges into a watery grave early on and spends roughly the next 100 minutes gasping for air. Read full review
30
Village VoiceRobert Wilonsky
The fanboys will find room in their heart to forgive the desecration. Everyone else won't care at all. Read full review
30
Washington PostCarina Chocana
Doesn't just play like a cheap "Batman" knockoff, it plays like a cheap "Batman" knockoff that knows it's a cheap "Batman" knockoff -- and wants to be sure everybody knows it knows. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Ultimately, it's a long, incoherent mess of a film, enlivened only by the sure knowledge that the great Will Eisner's original is available to one and all at your nearest comic-book shop. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The Spirit is mannered to the point of madness. There is not a trace of human emotion in it. To call the characters cardboard is to insult a useful packing material. Read full review
25
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Only Sarah Paulson, as the Spirit's doctor and sometime lover, seems to be in there playing the scenes as if she were a human being in a comic book superhero scenario, as opposed to a comic book character stuck in a cruddy movie. Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
The Spirit feels like the follow-up to "Batman & Robin" no one wanted. Read full review
20
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
It is truly a mess. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Miller clearly wanted to make an impression, and that he does. Maybe it's better to be remembered for one of the worst movies of the year than forgotten for a mediocre one. Read full review
16
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
The movie is a septic tank of vapid noir posturing, bad narration, bizarre pacing, cartoonishly hot femme fatales and ineptly staged slapstick. Read full review
0
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Hartlaub
Throwing your $10.25 down a storm drain is a better idea; at least that way you won't feel the added self-loathing of wasting more than an hour and a half of your life watching Eva Mendes in the worst acting job of her career. Read full review
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