Sin City
Review by Loc

Frank Miller penned the original Sin City graphic novels about shady characters in a harsh world. Director Robert Rodriguez loved the work and decided to make the live-action version of Miller's inkblots. In fact, Rodriguez loved it so much that he invited Miller to co-direct the movie even at the cost of Rodriguez's membership in the Director's Guild of America. Seems the DGA allows one director per movie, no exceptions. So Miller and Rodriguez brought comic characters to life at quite a price, was it worth it? Quick hit: surprisingly, yes.

To say the source material was the inspiration for the film would be a gross understatement. The co-directors used the original graphic novels as storyboards, character studies, and even tinder when the set went cold. In essence, they tried their darndest to make the graphic novels spring directly to life on the big screen.

Initially, I figured this would prove to be a mistake. Too often, cinematic translation of source material like novels or plays or comics, involves the deluded notion of "staying true" to original work. The result is an undeveloped film that is neither a complete movie nor a perfect recreation of the source. For novels, you might get a boring yarn lacking character depth. For plays, you lose the visceral energy of a live production. And for comics, you get goofy stuff that works in the two-dimensional world of superhero underwear, but comes off as campy upchuck on the silver screen.

Which is why Sin City is so intriguing. Sure, there are moments of comic buffoonery: Marv diving down ten flights of stairs and landing with gymnastic grace or street-hooker-lined-rooftops with guns-a-blazing in awful slo-mo glory. Yet, the visual bombardment is actually a tour de force. Everything is a bleak black-and-white except for the occasional red rose or yellow bastard. While the entire film was filmed against a green-screen, the digitally created backgrounds of Sin City effectively add to the film's flavor rather than distract the viewer. A character itself, Sin City breathes with unyielding cynicism like its children that populate the town. Paint me purple, the thought of filming comic panels left me disinterested and skeptical, and I was wrong, purple wrong.

The characters fall into the same boat as the visuals, comic geekiness that works for the most part. Marv is the gruff, rough, tough killer with a high code of honor. Sure, killing is a bad thing, but not quite as bad if done in the name of love, or deluded visions of love. Nonetheless, Mickey Rourke shines as Marv, and one must wonder if he was really acting or just got a kick out of playing himself with that weird chin. Nancy, the heart-of-gold stripper, played by Jessica Alba is cool, cool for me to look at. As noble Detective Hartigan, Bruce Willis agrees, a lot. Yes, these characters are standard fare, but Miller's writing is good enough to present them with interesting levels of humanity that lead to new takes on old ideas. Plus, lots of violence makes you think differently about your modern-day knight in shining armor.

As far as the story goes, it actually ends up being the weakest component of this film. The movie spans three graphic novels, which actually tell three different stories with three different casts of characters: one story involves the honorable payback murder of a slain prostitute with Rourke's Marv taking center stage; the second story features Clive Owen and Rosario Dawson delivering street justice as only Sin City street hookers could; finally, Willis and Alba steam up the joint while fleeing from a yellow bastard in the third plot. If Miller and Rodriguez would have told a tighter, shorter story, it would have paced better and hit the best parts of the source material. Instead, you get three intertwined tales, each of varying quality, over the course of two very long hours. Gimme more Marv, less rooftop street-hookers, and it'll give you that big, fat kill you're looking for.

Overall, Sin City delivered the goods in a way I didn't believe possible. Visually engaging and interesting characters kept this film rolling along. Surprisingly, it was the actual story, or collection of stories, which brought the film down a peg or two, the one part of this equation that I figured was rock solid. Go figure. Out of one castrat…wait, out of seven decapi…um, out of 20 stray cuts on Marv's face, Sin City carves up a nice 17. Make no mistake about it, it's a gritty, violent movie with dark, seedy material. But it's so fun! Hartigan agrees!