The Spirit isn't so much the female characters or the cleavage shots, but the fact that they're entirely deployed in the service of a dumb, juvenile fantasy of malehood.

As an action director Miller is almost as clumsy as Baz Luhrmann, but he's far from naïve, and presumably the delirium of The Spirit is exactly what he intended.

Miller's background as an artist was undoubtedly an important factor in achieving the striking visual effects. It's just when the human characters dominate the action that the film sinks like a stone.

Frank Miller’s The Spirit misfires in every way a movie can