Sin City
This neo-noir collaboration between director Robert “churn em out” Rodriguez and cult comic book author Frank Miller falls short in several categories.
If you object to uber-violence or that evil-vs-evil scenario, be advised to avoid this movie. Personally, the film was too dark for my taste. Call me old-fashioned, but I like tales of good vs evil. If you’ve read more than a few comic books in the last decade or two, you already know that the hero has been permanently replaced by the antihero–so that aspect was really no surprise. Sin City is a violent revenge tale, not unlike Kill Bill. However, Kill Bill had more campy panache and humanity in one frame than Sin City does in it’s entire 2 hours and 6 minutes.
On a narrative level, the film was nothing more than a series of unrelated greusome death scenes, interrupted by gratuitous T&A (a comic book geek’s wet dream world). Where was the plot? All of the geeks at AICN absolutely love it, becuase it’s so incredibly true to the comic book novel. but just becuase a film does not deviate from the source material does not make it great. If that were the case, all of those made-for-VHS Danielle Steele novella films starring Fabio and George Hamilton would be up for best picture every year.
On the plus side, I thought the CG cityscapes and effects were well-concieved and blended seamlessly into the world of the film. In terms of visuals, it’s a masterpiece. This is undoubtedly the closest a film has come to achieveing the look of the pulp comic books in the history of cinema.
Frank Miller’s world is darker than dark. If darkness and evil are your idea of a good time, then Sin City is the film for you. But I’m holding out for something better and brighter.