Style over content cause much disappointment

Rating: 3/10 (2 February 2006)

An awful film which i was utterly disgusted with. The rating for 3 comes from the beautiful graphic film work, the style is identical to the comic book. Though I'm not sure if this is a good thing or just laziness on the part of Robert Rodriguez. However, as the comic book was meant to be similar to the film noir detective films of the 1950's the film comes across as taking the mickey out of this rather than an homage.
Since this seems to be what the film concentrates on the direction and the acting is catered to this and comes across as hammy and ludicrous
Though i thought the novel was good enough i don't think the extreme violence from the comic strip worked well in film. The violence seemed comedic, unnecessary and over dramatic. However the worse part of this film is its treatment of women. Once again, though the treatment of women is taken directly from the comic book it doesn't translate well on to film, coming across as much more offencive and vicious than before.
Possibly worth a watch if you can ignore the insistent machismo and excessive violence for the stylish use of colour.