Review by Gary Tooze

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Description: Above shadowy, crime-infested streets a masked avenger watches. Denny Colt (Gabriel Macht) was one of Central City’s finest cops until a gangster’s bullet ended his life. Now Fate has brought him back from the beyond as The Spirit, a street-hardened hero who faces off against seductive foes like the voluptuous Sand Saref (Eva Mendes) and the alluring Silken Floss (Scarlett Johansson). Then, of course, there’s his evil archenemy, The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson), with a mission to wipe out Spirit’s beloved city as he pursues his own version of immortality in this graphic action-thriller.

 

 

The Film:

Excerpt from Chris Barsanti at Reel.com located HERE

Image :    NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were ripped directly from the Blu-ray disc.
 

The Spirit has some heavy, almost intense, eye-candy that translated beautifully onto Blu-ray. With such intentionally heavy style it's hard to know where digital tinkering starts and direct film transfers begin.  The effects are masterful though and this may be one of the discs you showcase to friends.  After seeing it look this rich and textured it's hard to image how an, obviously weaker, SD would relate. The desaturation bubbles the contrast to produce objects as silhouettes against the barren, or rather more empty, backgrounds. It floods your visual world to such an extent that you basically submit to the 40's homage. It's really very cool. Black levels are so intense that they lean to being representational of a 'Black Hole' in space. Technically this Blu-ray is dual-layered with the feature taking up over 30 Gig and the total bitrate approaches 40 Mbps. I didn't see this theatrically but the combination of the filmmaker's vision and the high-def rendering produces an impressive and memorable presentation. In my first viewing I watched without much regard to what was happening with the characters. The image seemed to be hypnotizing me (perhaps that was Jaime King's penetrating eyes.... or possibly Eva Mendes' sculptured buttocks).

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The DTS-HD Master 5.1 at 4748 kbps can blow out some windows. Separation is crisp and deft while Dan Newman's score (son of composer Alfred Newman!) fits like one of the Spirit's gloves. There is some demo audibles here but they are not strung together. Anyway, it made for a rewarding part of my Blu-ray presentation. I was impressed. Those keen on that aspect of the HD will enjoy the mix thoroughly. There are optional subtitles available in English (SDH and regular) and Spanish. LionsGate is almost occasionally region-locked but I have yet to reach definitive proof on this one yet. 

 

 

BOTTOM LINE:
Some critics disliked this rather intensely.  Although I thought it was kind of cute the style was starting to grate on me a little. I liked the representation of female characters but the plastic qualities of The Spirit take some adept performances to overcome that suspension of disbelief. I thought Gabriel Macht was perfect - Jaime King and Eva Mendes too. I just wasn't buying into the villainy of Jackson and Johansson. If you think you may like the withdrawn, inky, desaturated style, - you will probably get some enjoyment out of the movie visuals. It has both good and poor points attached. The Blu-ray is a triumph. It supports Miller vision and then some - looking absolutely dynamic in high-definition. Audio is close to reference (okay it 'is' reference) and extras garner some minor appreciation. From that point it's a recommendation - just don't enter your viewing with any pre-conceived notions (this is hard - I'll admit) as it may not run parallel to your fantasy expectations, but I still think many will like what they see. This is definitely one of those disc that should be seen in high-definition. 

Gary Tooze

April 3rd, 2009