New Spirit Poster Attempts to Distances Itself from that Other Frank Miller Film

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on October 16, 2008

If there is one complaint that I have been hearing over and over from folks about Frank Miller’s upcoming film The Spirit, it is that it feels like a knock-off of Sin City. At least, visually, that assessment is right. The difference is that The Spirit has a very slapstick nature — something that might drive Sin City fans off the deep end — especially if The Spirit turns out to be a cartoony second-rate Sin City wannabe, as some have predicted. One particular part of The Spirit that has mirrored Sin City has been the posters — they are almost carbon copies of each other. To illustrate this point, I would like to enter the following comparisons into evidence:

Not all perfect matches, but I think you get my point — The Spirit feels a lot like Sin City, there are no two ways around it. And with the release of a brand new poster, which was sent to us by the fine folks at BadTaste.it, it appears that maybe the folks at Lionsgate’s marketing department are starting to pick up on this, going away from the graphic novel-esque look at going to something a little sexier. As you can see below, the poster stays away from anything too comic-like, choosing to go with more of a mysterious masked man looking angry approach.

What do you think? Is it a fair comparison to Sin City, or am I off my rocker?

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