Great but over-rated

Rating: Null/10 (3 April 2005)

Sin City is indeed a watchable, and for the most part highly entertaining film. Did it live up to its hype (I mean, I've been anticipating this for almost 6 mos)?
Not so much.
It starts great, with the segment introducing Bruce Wiliis' character, and sets the tone for yet more of the super-stylized ultra violence that we've come to relish in Rodriguez's films.
(And when big Quinty is listed as a 'special guest director', you just know there's gonna be a whole lotta genital-mutilatin', limb-choppin fury. You know, for the kids...)
The story line featuring Mickey Rourke as Marv is great, a good story well told. Then the film hits a big fat lag.
They could have trimmed twenty minutes out of this and had a real good, tightly connected series of vignettes that really would have sent me home loving it and wanting more.
Don't get me wrong, I love del Toro's work, but the whole hooker-sequence-with-lotsa-misogeny, and little killer Miho (or whatever the hell her name was) just went on and oooonnnnnnn.
I know I'm not into a piece when I find myself looking at my watch to see how much longer it could drag out, ya know what I'm saying?
Plus, you know, I'm getting tired of the flying Chinese superchicks that are all the rage among the Tarantino-esque set for the last three years.
Ditto for the d'enouement, with Bruce Willis confronting the yellow guy whose appearance turned the whole thing into a lame-ass Star Trek-era makeup retread. And whose whole dialog and raison d'etre have been done so many times.
Pity, too, as I was SO hyped after the first couple of stories.
Bottom line: Sin City is alright, but only alright. You wont regret it if you wait for the DVD release, but it is worth a look at some point. Heaps of style (albeit derivative of a lot of other recent movies, most notably Sky Captain and a lot of great Asian cinema like Casshern)
Its a better than average film, and I love Rodriguez's work. It just ain't no Once Upon a Time in Mexico.