It’s no surprise that the flat-out genius of Will Eisner’s 1940s-era comic would get lost in translation. Still, the movie’s director—Eisner acolyte Miller (Sin City)—has belched up an especially skewed adaptation of his mentor’s series that, even by Hollywood standards, manages to be shockingly inert. Per the source material, the masked Spirit (Macht) punches and flirts, while femmes fatale Saref (Mendes) and Silken Floss (Johansson) exploit their va-va-voom wiles. But every line is hardboiled to rigor mortis, and Miller has no idea how to turn his chiaroscuro images into living, breathing cinema. A director’s commentary doesn’t improve the home experience, nor do storyboards and a roughed-out alternate ending. But the DVD transfer is bright and rich; visuals are pretty much all this thing’s got going for it, anyway.

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