Difficult Concept, Sinfully Violent

Rating: 4/10 (25 June 2006)

I've never read the Sin City series, but having dabbled in comic collecting, I have some of Mike Mignola's other work and like it. I'm a huge fan of seeing comic books come to the big screen. And as usual, when something lands on the small screen (HBO) I'm all over it.
But even using visually stunning and surreal black/white film didn't hide the incredibly violent adult story and theme. It just wasn't surreal enough.
It's one thing to be watching Wily E. Coyote repeatedly survive amazing traumas while trying to get that roadrunner - I thought it was amazingly stupid when TV censors called that "violent - another to watch live-action Spiderman where there are bright colors and suspense but very little blood, but it's another thing entirely to watch one prostitute rip bloody flesh out of the neck of another with her teeth.
Many comic books have violent themes, and graphic novels have been used to address areas that are not easily narrated or require more representation (Maus, for example).
But translating such a violent tale to live action, rather than animation - how soon before seeing this type of film makes violence seem commonplace? Comic books reach such a young audience. I was really disappointed with how violent this film was. I saw a later summary of this when it was televised on Starz, which describes it as "fiercely faithful" but "outrageously gory" which pretty much says it all.
It was visually stunning, the make-up was amazing, and the stories were compelling. I'm sure that it was true to the original comic book, but I'm not sure the material was really meant to be live action - at least, for me.