The Spirit
As most of you probably know, I love comics, so allow me to ramble a bit. It all comes back on topic, I promise.
Watchmen is often called 'the Citizen Kane of comics', it isn't (though it may be the Citizen Kane of superhero comics or The Godfather of comics). The Spirit, however, is the Citizen Kane of comics.
With each strip you could see Will Eisner experimenting with and establishing the methods to be used in contemporary comics in the same way that Citizen Kane established contemporary cinema. It's not only a great comic but an
important one that is still relevant to those wanting to learn how to make comics almost 70 years on.
In addition to this, and in the words of Neil Gaiman, 'Eisner's lightness of touch and mastery of story, his humour and his humanity' are why (and I'm paraphrasing Warren Ellis because why not quote two amazing writers in one poorly structured sentence?) comic book readers talk about The Spirit in the kind of hushed tones usually reserved for the Turin Shroud.
Then there's Frank. We all know Frank Miller from various Batman stories, 300 and Sin City but what you may not know is that he was Eisner's close friend and great admirer. The two even published a book of their conversations called Eisner/Miller. So when The Spirit's film rights were being shopped around and someone approached Miller (at Eisner's memorial service, no less) to direct, you'd think that the adaptation would be in perfect hands, wouldn't you?
You'd be mistaken.
Here's the problem. Frank Miller learnt how to make a film from Robert Rodriguez on the set of Sin City but Sin City is no normal movie, in fact it's deliberately unlike any other movie. Frank Miller was all excited and all ready to leap into being a film-maker with the knowledge of how to make a Sin City movie but without the film rights to his own book.
Miller's solution? Mutate The Spirit into Sin City. Denny Colt, plucky everyman in a blue suit is now a grim avenger in a black suit with SUPERPOWERS ala wolverine. Gone are the colours and character, gone is the humanity and gone is Eisner. Worse still - it's not even a good Sin City – he can't even rip himself off successfully!
But this isn't merely a terrible adaptation, its a terrible movie – Frank Miller clearly has no idea what he's doing, his actors look lost, the pacing is uneven with scenes lasting way too long and it's tone bounces all over the place within single scenes.
In short: Frank Miller turns his dead friend's important comic into a low rent rip-off of his own work.