With new female rookie cop Morgenstern (STANA KATIC) now on the beat, The Spirit intensifies his quest to bring down his arch nemesis, the flamboyantly sinister The Octopus (SAMUEL L. JACKSON). Like Denny, he's immortal thanks to his scientific prowess that's resulted in the creation of various cloned if buffoonish thugs (all played by LOUIS LOMBARDI), and he has the likes of sultry Silken Floss (SCARLETT JOHANSSON) and the exotic Plaster of Paris (PAZ VEGA) working for him.

Yet there's another woman in the picture, and that's Sand Saref (EVA MENDES), Denny's love from his youth who left town long ago, disillusioned following her father's death, and hasn't been seen since. But when the locket Denny gave her appears at a murder scene, his interest is obviously piqued, and he soon learns that her materialistic leanings as a teen have blossomed into a criminal desire to have what's only the best.

As a result, she has something The Octopus wants and vice-versa, all of which means The Spirit must capture and defeat the megalomaniacal villain before he gains ultimate power and becomes unstoppable.

And those can range from the old David and Goliath pairings (thus feeding off the reader's desire to root for the underdog) to more equal battles where two formidable adversaries go toe-to-toe (and then some) in a battle to end all battles. Of course, the writers and illustrators of said latter works still realize the need for some sort of Achilles' heel for their protagonists.

Accordingly, most can be killed, and even those who seem impervious have holes in their defenses, be that kryptonite or a love interest in peril. Otherwise, and despite knowing how things will obviously turn out (even the ones who are killed are eventually resurrected), readers will loose interest in a hero who, without a doubt, can't be defeated or permanently hurt.

That latter point is just one element of several that bedevil "The Spirit," writer/director Frank Miller's first solo outing helming a comic book tale following his work with Robert Rodriguez on the hyper-visualized "Sin City." Like that pic, this one's far more style than substance, shot to have the look and feel of a comic book come to life on the big screen.

While "The Dark Knight" proved that one can make a superlative comic book movie without all of the visual bells and whistles taking center stage, I can accept the eye candy as long as there's something else there or even just lurking beneath the superficiality.

Alas, Miller has seemingly put more effort in how the picture looks than in how it plays, especially from a screenplay standpoint. Case in point is the protagonist and antagonist pairing. I'm not terribly familiar with the original comic strip -- beyond it appearing as a supplement in papers from 1940 to 1952 and featuring a former cop turned crime-fighting figure, or so I've been informed -- so comparisons are somewhat moot.

Regardless of any faithfulness to the old material, the issue is that we have a hero and villain who are, for all intents and purposes, immortal. Sure, they get beat up, blasted by bullets and such, but by the next morning they're as good as new. All of which means their battles are pointless, a point discerned early in the film when The Spirit (a buff but otherwise mundane Gabriel Macht) and The Octopus (Sam Jackson going even further over the top than usual, bug eyes and all) take turns pummeling one another, to no eventual avail. As a result, we have no vested interest in either character or any final outcome that might eventually grace us with its presence.

Subplots and supporting characters aren't of much help either, although at least Miller keeps some of Will Eisner's imaginatively named players, including Sand Serif and Silken Floss, while introducing new ones such as Plaster of Paris. I personally would have stuck with the ones sounding like type fonts, including the likes of Felix Titling, his sister Perpetual Titling, Estrangelo Edessa and, of course, Helvetica (heck, that cool name list just goes on and on).

There are dames (Sarah Paulson), broads (Stana Katic) and variations of the femme fatales (Eva Mendes, Scarlett Johansson, Paz Vega and Jamie King as the siren type angel of death), and enough gumshoe film noir dialogue to choke a roomful of Sam Spades. That metaphor-injected voice over narration comes courtesy of our trusty protagonist, while the likes of Dan Lauria's cop character arrives straight from the noir cliché playbook (he even looks and acts like Bob Hoskins' alter ego in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit").

Like that latter film, but without the degree of wit, and ultimately leaning even further into Adam West and Burt Young territory, the pic occasionally dives headfirst into pure camp (Jackson and Johansson dressed like Nazi SS officers, anyone?), and thus the pic stays true in honoring the original's flitting from one genre to another without blinking an eye or comic book panel.

What all of this critique eventually boils down to is the fact that the movie is all over the board in its collection of conventions and clichés, but it never comes together into a satisfying whole. And without a compelling underlying plot to hold our attention and/or engaging characters to make us care, all we're left with is highly stylized but ultimately empty camp, sans the POWS! WHACKS! and WHAMS! gracing the screen to emphasize the point.

Something of a combination of TV's 1960s era "Batman," "Sin City" and a plethora of gumshoe and film noir entries, "The Spirit" sports an imaginative look and occasionally comes up with some fun moments and bits of dialogue. Otherwise, however, it's just a cool looking ghost with nothing of interest inside. The film rates as a 4 out of 10.