The Spirit

The Spirit really loves his city. And, well, since he can’t marry it, he’s come back from the dead as a gentlemanly masked hero to defend it from oft-sexy villainy after spending his first life fighting crime for city law enforcement. Directed by graphic novelist Frank Miller, the look of The Spirit is like that of Miller’s stunning Sin City, so fans may tag him a one-trick pony, what with the obvious recycling of his signature comic-book-to-screen mis-en-scène—like black-and-white spotlighted scenes featuring pops of red and Chuck Taylor sole shots. But who really cares that it’s all been done before when it looks so freaking cool and the foes—Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson and Eva Mendes—are nemeses with style?