Sin City

Summary:
It's a black and white world with moments of color and tons of violence, akin to the 40's film noir, but with a modern vibe. It's a world of criminals with codes of honor, untrustworthy cops, and femme fatales.
Three stories intertwine, centering on the happenings of the criminal underworld of Basin City. Get ready for some killer violence and a plethora of inner monologues!

Review:
In the same filming style of Casshern and Sky Captain, Sin City is filmed using the new 'digital backlot' format (just like Lucas' prequels. Haha), which means the actors are filmed almost entirely against green and bluescreens, with the sets being inserted digitally afterwards. All three movies are wildly different from each other, and have approached this modern style in completely different ways. Each one has its' strong points, but Sky Captain fails to work as well for its' genre as the other two mentioned titles.
Sin City's look is pretty damned gorgeous, with the painstaking recreation of the graphic novels' pages coming to life right before one's eyes. I only skimmed through the graphic novels because I didn't want to be spoiled (it's almost exactly like the comic), and sadly the most important element of the comic - Jessica Alba's character being naked almost the entire time - was compromised. What hasn't been changed is the story's gritty setting, extreme violence, and engaging voice over narration from each tales' main characters.

Almost everyone did a knockout performance with their given roles, but for me the main attraction was Mickey Rourke, who kicked total ass as the ugly and heartbroken ballbuster Marv who goes on a mission of vengeance against the killers of the one woman who made his heart skip a beat. Jessica Alba would have to be the weakest link, but as long as she doesn't open her mouth and start 'acting', she's killer eye candy. Clive Owen is a cool cat, and Benecio Del Toro plays it sick and twisted. Devon Aoki (Miho) is completely disgusting looking and they could have easily found another hot asian chick to take that little-headed, flat-faced, pursey lipped freckled monster's place. But one endures, and I tried to keep my eyes off of her face and pay attention to the carnage she inflicts.
There's also a great supply of hard-hitting action. How many times did someone get mangled in the crotch? Heh, I lost count (at least 5)! I got some hearty laughs from a lot of the silly details on some of the torture elements, such as the turds in the toilet, or the look of sparks flying off of a guy's face as it's being dragged by a car on the pavement, his legs in the air just like a single comic cell (but in real time).
I dig some of the use of color, although if there's a deeper meaning to WHY some items are in color other than to look cool (like eyes flashing green under a lit cigarette), it skips me right now. I would say that most of the characters' strongest emotional influences become colorized, adding a fantastic dreamlike element to their gritty black and white world. Alright, enough on the attempts at analyzing crap; this is entertainment, folks, with a shit-ton of artistic flair!

I do have a few complaints, first one being that the runtime overstays its' welcome. It runs at two hours flat, and although I wouldn't take one scene out of this movie, it still seems like it drags ever so slightly. I also enjoyed the first story the most ("The Long Goodbye"), and it had the highest casualty count and strongest actions scenes, so everything from that point on spiralled ever so slightly downward. Then again, the next two tales had their own 'vibe' and depth which the first one lacked. By the time the third story started, I felt ready to stop watching. It's not to say that part three ("That Yellow Bastard") isn't also a wonderful time. It is!
My second complaint is the overuse of inner monologues. Once again, I don't know what I would remove to help alleviate this issue. It's almost as if they couldn't let some scenes play themselves out quietly, to allow the moment to breathe a life of its' own. Instead, each frame had to be consumed with dialogue so as not to waste the free space inside a composed shot. On the flip side of this coin, other filmmakers should watch this as an example of PROPER USE of voice over narration! Most of the time a movie doesn't need to have one, but this one does a good job at proving an exception to the rule.

Sin City is a great time at the movies. It's the first one of the year I was really looking forward to, and I was not let down! Genre fans of the classic 40's crime capers, lovers of the well done comics by the legendary Frank Miller, and spectators looking for some wild violence and whitty dialogue will dig this flick, no doubt about it.

GRADE: A-

TRIVIA:
Quentin Tarantino directed the scene in the car with Benicio Del Toro and Clive Owen on the way to the tar pits.

Rodriguez considers this movie a 'translation', not an adaptation. Therefore, the only writing credit is the graphic novel.

Frank Miller has a cameo as a priest.

Reviewed: 4/10/05