style over substance

Rating: 4/10 (26 September 2005)

Bang. Boom. Blam.
There you have a fine plot summary of this grossly overrated movie.
If I were a teen, perhaps I wouldn't have minded watching scene after scene of testosterone-driven characters (including, seemingly, the females) spewing out line after line of instantly forgettable dialogue; however, since I much prefer movies that have interesting plots, I feel obligated to warn those expecting a lot from this movie because of it's high IMDb rating (8.4)to keep their eyes open and their ears closed.
As the movie "Sin City" is a comic book adaptation, the director and his team chose to infuse the movie's cinematography with a heavy comic book feel-- the use of black and white color contrast and Gothic lighting is particularly effective, in this respect. And not only does the movie look like a comic book, but it moves like one as well; the tempo is brisk, and the lead characters are constantly on the go. Yet none of it's dynamic imagery and pacing compensates fully for the bland one-dimensionality of the lead characters. In the Spider-man movies, the viewer likes and cares for Peter Parker, who possesses, at the same time, superhuman powers and a nice guy personality. It's easy to empathize with Parker, who is shy and insecure but possesses the potential to accomplish so much more. By contrast, the lead characters in Sin City seem cynical and somewhat stoic, even as they scramble frantically across the city and its outskirts to accomplish various tasks.