This movie was shot in the same way as Sin City but unlike that movie this one unfortunately plays like a bad comedy, and by that i meant it just isn't funny and nor is it exciting enough to pass itself off as an action movie or a thriller.

The one thing the film has going for it is the cinematography which is pure eye candy and a good sound mix but the script is just plain lazy and the editing let's so many scenes go on longer than they should so what could have been an ok movie end's up being a self indulgent mess. I feel they should have played this straight and it could have been a very good movie but instead Miller has injected silly humour into the proceedings and it just doesn't work. I was actually feeling bored watching this but the visual's got me through to the end.

For some reason the rental disc which is not region locked did not contain the 7.1 sound mix 24 bit DTS-HD Master Audio track and instead contained only a Dolby Digital 5.1 track at 640kbp/s. My software even told me it was missing the dedicated bass channel. I believe the version you can buy does contain the DTS track but buyer beware just in case you end up with a Dolby lossy track. This disc came in at 23GB while the one with the DTS track and extra's is around 30GB.

There is intentional softness and it seems digital airbrushing in some scenes especially closeups of women in the movie but that is artistic intent and it works better in this movie than it did in Resident Evil: Extinction where it was applied poorly to Milla Jovovich's face. Check out frame 9 as an example of this softness. Frame 8 is the scene just before this and as you can see that frame is very sharp and detailed.

View blu ray screencaps of The Spirit. Click the image again for the full HD frame.