Warning: It’s hard to talk about sequels without spoiling the original film, so if you haven’t seen the original Sin City, proceed with caution.
Released: August 2014
Directed By: Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller
Cast:
Mickey Rourke: Marv
Jessica Alba: Nancy
Josh Brolin: Dwight
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: Johnny
Bruce Willis: Hartigan
Eva Green: Ava
Powers Boothe: Senator Roark
Back in the early 90s, comic writer, artist and director Frank Miller released the Sin City comic books, which took place in a fiction city called Basin City in the American West. The comic draws heavily on film noir, and as a result, had a very unique look. Most of the pictures were in black and white with a few colors thrown in for some of the stories. The comics won multiple awards throughout the years for it’s artwork. It was very surprising when director Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller decided to adapt the comics into a movie. By this time, a lot of comic book movies had been pretty successful. Movies like The Crow, Blade, Batman, and X-Men, proved that you could have a serious film based on comic books. In 2005, the movie adaptation of Sin City was released to audiences world-wide. It was one of the most unique movies that anybody had ever seen. It was a film that had multiple stories told over two hours, so it wasn’t a straight-line to the end of the movie. Some parts at the beginning of the movie took place after events that happen towards the end of the movie, but it wasn’t hard to follow. Utilizing an amazing cast, Sin City was one the best comic book adaptations ever made. 9 years later, we got a sequel. Finally.
The film opens as local bad boy Marv(Mickey Rourke)sees a bunch of punks attempting to light a homeless person on fire. Marv intervenes and kills two of them, he chases them around and makes it Old City where the other two are quickly dispatched. The film cuts to a private detective, Dwight(Josh Brolin), as he’s preparing to set up a local business owner(Ray Liotta)for a black-mailing operation. Later at a local bar, he’s visited by an old “girlfriend,” Ava(Eva Green). At the same time, a mysterious stranger known as Johnny(Joseph Gordon-Levitt), shows up to play poker with the corrupt and powerful Senator Roark(Powers Boothe). I’m going to try and avoid spoiling this movie, because it gets a bit….twisty. Like the first movie, the film sports comic book-like visuals that are impressive and over-the-top. It’s mostly in black and white, so that makes the carnage that much more ridiculous.
I touched on the visuals a little bit, but I’ll get more into that later. For now, I’m going to discuss a particular issue with Sin City: A Dame To Kill For: Continuity. If you’ve gotten this far without seeing the original movie and don’t want it spoiled, I would suggest you hit the back button on your browser because I can’t really discuss this particular issue without spoiling the crap out of the original Sin City. Still here? Okay. When I first saw Marv again, I asked myself, “Wasn’t he executed at the end of the first movie?” Also, why is Josh Brolin playing Dwight instead of Clive Owen? I guess you would have to read the comics in order to find out why this stuff happens, but for regular movie-goers, it gets pretty confusing. I understand that in comic books, dead characters tend to come back to life, but Sin City 2 seems…..schizophrenic when it comes to particular details. It seems to me that some of these stories in the new movie overlap with the events of the first film. It strikes me as odd that this stuff wasn’t addressed properly, and some people knock A Dame To Kill For, because of that and rightly so. This is the biggest problem facing Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, and it’s going to factor pretty heavily in my verdict.
Like the original film, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For sports a phenomenal cast. Some of the characters were re-cast for obvious reasons. The guard with the golden-eye had to be replaced by Dennis Haysbert because Michael Clarke Duncan passed away two years ago. Josh Brolin takes over for Clive Owen and Jamie Chung is the new Miho, that was originally played by Devon Aoki. Some of the cast changes may be….jarring. But the others come back: Bruce Willis as Hartigan, Rosario Dawson as Gail and Powers Boothe as Senator Roark. Everybody is fantastic in this movie. It’s over-the-top, so the performances are either low-key or over-the-top. Mickey Rourke is just fantastic as the deformed Marv. Powers Boothe steals the show as the senator. The character is clearly evil and Booth just chews the scenery like it’s nobody’s business. He’s quite the villain. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a fantastic actor at his age, and it shows.
Visually, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, is a stunner. Like the original film, this movie has great visual style. From the action to the story, it’s got noir in its veins. Most of the film is in black and white, while some characters and objects have some color. A movie like this can also get away with far more carnage because of its color palette. Speaking of violence, Sin City 2 is extremely violent. I would not expect anything less from Robert Rodriguez. It’s stylish and gruesome at the same time. Like the first movie, this film is a comic book come to life and overall it is spectacular. Aside from the major continuity issues that plague this movie, another issue is the down-time between action set-pieces. There’s too many scenes where nothing really happens, and you end up looking at your watch. The first movie didn’t have this problem, it was well-paced and didn’t center on a particular story-line for very long.
Robert Rodriguez is a fantastic director. He’s directed a lot of fantastic movies including From Dusk Till Dawn, Desperado, and the Machete films. He does a fantastic job here, and gets the best performances that can out of the cast, but I can’t help but notice the problems that Sin City: A Dame To Kill For has. It’s not a bad film by any stretch of the imagination. Far from it, it’s awesome. But as a sequel, it just doesn’t quite live up to the original. Then again, most sequels rarely do. I was just hoping for a little bit more than what we got. Will we get another movie? It’s hard to say at this point. The first Sin City is clearly the better of the two, so I suggest sticking with that one unless you’re a die-hard fan of these movies. It’s stylish, violent, and has some awesome acting. It’s just some of the issues that I brought up earlier drag it down. Overall, I’m giving this one a 7/10. It’s slightly disappointing.