Good fun, but nothing more

Rating: Null/10 (16 June 2005)

Ever since I saw the trailer I've been looking forward to seeing Sin City. The visual style and the potential for a tough, gritty film hooked me. But one thing nagged at me. I've never seen a Robert Rodriguez film I've liked. Sure I've only seen 'Desperado' and 'From Dusk Till Dawn', but they were enough to put me off him. He's truly the king of style over substance. Both of those films are so thin that they snap if you try and take a close look at them. Plus the action in both is incredibly tedious and repetitive.
So how does Sin City fare? Did it make me think any differently about Rodriguez? No, not really. He's still a director uncomfortable with narrative. However, Sin City is stylish. Very much so. And it's also violent, nasty and pretty good fun to boot. It's just a shame that the fantastic images are cobbled together by some lousy storytelling.
The worst offender is the first big story - the Marv story. It moves at such a pace and lumbers forward so incoherently that I was really fearing for the film. Characters were given about five seconds set-up and then they were usually dispatched. And the scenes just rattled by. You're never given any time to adjust to the world. You're never given any time to get to know the character. It's relentless. And while the premise itself is rather good, the execution is poor. Basically Marv falls in love after five seconds, the woman gets killed after ten and after thirty seconds Marv is on a rampage to avenge her death. It's all rather silly. But instead of laughing with the film, I was laughing at it. Surely the film had to get better...
Thankfully, it did. The second big story, while again rather flawed, was an improvement on the first. It flowed better, it actually had a set-up and it had some good gallows humour. However, it was perhaps the most adolescent story - although to be fair the whole film is aimed at horny teenagers. Just the whole idea of a bunch of gun-welding prostitutes with great bodies and amazing killing skills makes me laugh. It's very much a male fantasy, as is the idea that women get a kick out of being hit. To be honest, the violence in the film didn't bother me one iota, but the film just has a pubescent feeling to it. Everything is pitched at horny boys.
The final big story I thought was the best. It was the only one that had me gripped from beginning to end. But having said this, the story is far from original. It could be from any cheap paperback novel. But unlike the other stories it does almost succeed in engaging me on something more than just a visceral level. As familiar as the territory is, there was something quite touching about the man in solitary confinement, waiting for a child's letter as he does time for a crime he didn't commit. And I loved the moment when Jessica Alba jumps from the stage to hug Willis. It has real feeling. And their awkward romance, while done a million times before, was well done too. Therefore, the revenge story that followed I found very satisfying.
So although my feelings are mixed, I ended up enjoying the film. It may add up to nothing and it may get off to a bad start, but in the end it turns out to be bloody good fun.