Movie Review: The Spirit

I didn’t go to see “The Spirit” on Christmas day.

I go to the movies every Christmas. With the Coat Rack Tree not making a return appearance this year, it is perhaps my only Christmas tradition. On Christmas Eve, I thought to myself, “I am going to see The Spirit tomorrow, and I am going to write an excoriating blog post about it.” It was barely a thought, more like a cunning, animal urge.

I clung to the urge all the way to the theater. I was going to hate The Spirit and pay eight dollars for the privilege. I would then go home and proceed to be comically caustic about the rage I felt after watching a movie that I knew I was going to dislike before I even sat down in the theater’s lush stadium seats.

I bought a ticket for Bolt.

I don’t know why. I mean, Bolt has Miley Cyrus, John Travolta and adorable cartoon animals and none of those make for destination cinema in my mind. But it’s a strong Disney film, not on par with the string of 90s gems but much, much better than any of the House of Mouse’s non-Pixar stuff in the last five to six years. It’s no Wall-E, but then Wall-E will be very close to the top of my ‘Films of the Year’ list (if I ever get around to making that list, that is). I think I was prompted by Steve’s horrible revelation about the film, and Steve and I are on the same page about most things.

The following night, I went to see a movie with a friend. We saw Bedtime Stories. It was entertaining, if a bit overcute. I laughed. I was reminded how adorable Keri Russell is. It was a good, thought-free diversion of the kind that Sandler has been dishing out of late. It’s no Happy Gilmore or Punch Drunk Love, but - and I guess this is the takeaway I’m angling for here - not everything has to be.

So I set out to see one movie this holiday and saw two others that I never intended on watching. I enjoyed them more than I thought I would and I don’t regret missing the one that I passed over. It was, as Alan Moore would say, “positively energizing.”

I want to be a liker again. I realize that at some point I quit focusing on the things that I like and started paying way too much attention to things I hate. Maybe because it gets comments. Maybe because I was severely unhappy in my personal life and I wanted to do what friends do to other friends: share their pain. Maybe I grasp my vitriol tightly, like a child forcing the last remnants out of a tube of toothpaste, because I feel like it makes me more valid. But all of that is bullshit. I like things, and I want to be vocal about liking them again, not focused on how much this or that sucks.

Of course, there are some bailiwicks I won’t let go. Will I still bitch about DC’s marketing? Probably, at least as long as they continue to do it poorly. But I won’t be bitching about the content of their books, because I’m only reading the books I like now. I’ll be blogging about these things not because I’m some curmudgeonly, ever-vigilant, burrito-eating watchdog, but because I’m a marketer and a comics geek, and the intersection of the two means that I have Thoughts.

I can’t promise an end to the Things I Hate posts, but I think you’ll see less of them. In an effort to keep my New Year’s resolution manageable, I’m going to simply say that I’m trying to correct these things. I may slip. But 2009 has the potential to be one of the best years I’ve had in a long time, and I don’t want to spend it focusing on the things that I don’t like.