Watching this MTV-hosted teaser for The Spirit, my first
thought is how I would have loved to see Matt Wagner apply this same approach
to the Hunter Rose Grendel story arc fifteen or twenty years ago. There’s a lot to like about the overall aesthetic; it’s
a tiny bit more inviting than that of Sin City, but every bit as dramatic.

Edit: I think
the use of Untouchables music is great, too, since it gives me a familiar and positive rail to hang on to, and it fits the visual tone. (Thanks to Brett for IDing that in the comments — I’m ashamed at missing an obvious Morricone score.)

Taking this clip purely as an abstract, I’m amazed at how
well Frank Miller seems to be able to channel his art style to the screen.
Every once in a while I have to step back and be impressed by how far digital
filmmaking has come, with respect to faithfully replicating a specific artist’s
touch. 

That touch being Miller’s, not Will Eisner’s. Ahem. Moving on.

Will the style and evolved Sin City craft be enough to
sell this flick to an audience? I can’t even tell if there will be anything more to the film than those two elements. And it ain’t perfect. As the Spirit runs across rooftops, his movement is very awkward, and the voiceover is so deeply serious, which to me
contrasts poorly with the giant pop art type that spins across the screen. If only we saw the Spirit wearing his mask as he walks
across that early shot in his boxers, I’d feel like Miller was making a movie
that took place in a city that can laugh as well as scream.

(And yes, I’m over the constant barrage of Spirit news stories, too. Now that this clip is out, we can take a break for a while.)

Jeremy sez: I’m biased, so I’ll put this out to the commentariat: is Ennio
Morricone’s opening title theme for The Untouchables… untouchable as
a piece of trailer music? I say “Hell Yes”, but Brian De Palma’s
gangster saga is also in my top five most-watched movies of all time.
Still, isn’t that opening credit sequence considered one of the best put to film since Saul Bass called it a day? If you’re hot to
commit full-on sacrilege, why not go ahead and trot out Bernard Herrmann’s
North by Northwest theme? Bad choice of music for a not-very-good
trailer. And stop selling this as brooding and humorless when it’s not.