Pure violence

Rating: 7/10 (7 November 2005)

Recap: A few loosely connected stories that takes place in the fictional story of Sin City. Based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller. The stories generally tell the story of a lone man that has fallen outside the system. The law is not functioning, and to protect and avenge the girl of theirs, and get even, they go on a personal crusade through the city, to find out who is responsible for the injustice done to them. And they are not asking nice.
Comments: This is two hours of pure violence. The heroes can take and dish out enormous amount of damage, and they do on a nightly basis. Indeed the movie is so full of action violence, clearly resembling that what one expects in a graphic novel, that the story is forced to take the back seat. In my opinion, the movie would have been better if there would have been a stronger, more emphasized story. But still the move is very entertaining. As I believe director Rodriguez said, this is an translation of the graphic novel to the medium of a movie, not an adaptation. So the very brutal violence is given a clear aspect of that in a graphic novel. Indeed, the total experience is the one of having been shown a graphic novel, and if that was the intention, the movie is very successful. This means, for instance, that the violence is very brutal and unrealistic, so it is never scary or nasty. Actually just fun and entertaining.
The visual concept of the movie is very interesting, mostly being black and white, but with a few exceptions. Red is a returning color, as is the eyecolor blue. Blood is red sometimes, and white other times. This gives the movie a unique visual feel, which is very interesting. But it never bothers with the story of the movie.
Since there is three almost independent stories the cast is big, and there are lot of big names. Some get more time on the screen than others, but a in general it is very good acting. I really like Rourke's performance as Marv. Good casting, good acting.
I'll give this move a 7 out of 10. It was very entertaining, but if the movie wishes to score higher with me, I need a better story.