Innovative, original, gripping, unique

Rating: 10/10 (28 February 2006)

Too many films are described as unique or groundbreaking in some way. However when it comes to Sin City, those platitudes are well and truly deserved.
Sin City is a vile corrupt cesspit of a town, where no one is innocent, even the good guys are bad, and the bad guys are truly evil. The film is made up of three distinct original stories based on Miller's novels, all cleverly interwoven, and narrated by each story's main character. This adds to the real adult comic book feel to the film. Shot almost entirely in black and white, with sporadic splashes of colour, the film is beautiful to look at, managing to capture the essence and feel of a classic 50s noir while also looking modern, thanks to being shot almost entirely on green screen. The girls and the cars are absolutely beautiful, and the guys are always anti-heroes, vigilantes or downright sick or evil.
The scenes are almost frame for frame recreations of the original graphic novel source material of Frank Miller, and the characters really look their comic-book equivalents. The dialogue is superbly written, with an almost poetic quality, and all in all is extremely faithful to Miller's original work. The three stories themselves are all uber-violent and gritty tales of revenge, honour and justice (although the sentiments often prove somewhat misguided or self-defeating), and no one is entirely innocent  with the exception of Nancy, played to angelic perfection by the beautiful Jessica Alba.
A superb cast make up Sin City, where virtually every single face is a recognisable one. However, the undoubted star of the piece is Mickey Rourke, who is a revelation in his comeback performance as Marv. Somehow he manages to make a manic psychopath driven by a need for revenge seem like a hero, if only because the guys he is killing are even worse than he is. Elijah Wood too is superbly creepy as the mute cannibal Kevin, and it shows how hard he is working not to find himself typecast as a hobbit. Bruce Willis, Rosario Dawson, Benicio Del Toro and Clive Owen, amongst others, are all also excellent, making Sin City a truly brilliant all-round ensemble piece. However it is not for the squeamish or faint-hearted, as the claret (and limbs) flows freely and frequently.
The only quibbles are that the superb instrumental guitar riff which appears on the film's trailers and menu does not appear on the film soundtrack itself, and that the sequel is not due until late 2007! A truly brilliant film, probably the best film of 2005, (a year which also saw the release of Batman Begins and Star Wars) and a gripping comic book tale of corruption and justice, filmed in a truly unique and innovative way. A work of art, and a film that must be seen by any true movie fan. Sin City is simply a cool movie.