visually great, but...

Rating: 4/10 (15 April 2005)

Sin City is a visually stunning film. I am not familiar with Frank Miller's work so I can only assume, like the previous posts have mentioned, that the movie is a faithful rendition of the comic book. It unrolls like an urban nightmare...a city that has lost all hope, doomed heroes, murderous whores, insane politicians, grotesque characters who commit unspeakable deeds. All of this in black and white, with a few glimmers of color. It's all somewhat anachronistic...the cars are all from the forties and fifties...but many of the weapons seem quite up to date.
From a style standpoint...this movie is great. I think it lacks on substance however.It's over-the-top, unrelenting, obsessive violence completely overshadows the plots. The blood, guts and gore eventually begin to overwhelm the entire movie. Every scene tries to out-splatter the one two minutes before. I went to this movie with a friend who bailed out about three quarters of the way through it. It's by far the bloodiest, most violent movie I've ever seen...and I've seen many of the nastiest.
When people left the theater, it was sort of a stunned silence. There was a time when there were films that actually had something called suspense.