good but not as good...

Rating: Null/10 (4 April 2005)

For starters, I have been a Frank Miller fan since Daredevil and Dark Knight. I don't really think that Sin City is his best work but I always thought it would make a cool movie. with that out of the way, I enjoyed the film very much and give it (as a movie) 8 out of ten stars. i've always enjoyed films that transport you to another place by creating a universe unto itself. it reminds me of ERB novels of Tarzan when i read them as a child. but I digress. I'm a bit surprised that the acting was as good as it was. Mickey Rourke floored me as Marv and Benicio Del Toro as Jackie boy was equally as good. the problem with this is that the great acting exposed some of the weaker performances in the film such as Jessica Alba's Nancy: she was surely hot and FM has never really fleshed out her character, but she seemed flat. for the most part though, all the actors did what they could with the source material. the violence will probably turn some moviegoers off (even in todays desensitized society) and it's always more shocking to see a violent act then to read it, albeit in a graphic novel, but it is what it is. I look forward to the DVD and seeing each story in its entirety because the originals were so economically written that to cut anything is detrimental to the story as a whole. the visuals of the film were gorgeous of course and unlike anything we have seen on the screen before. color was only used only as an exclamation point, how Frank Miller intended. the score was simple and unobtrusive, ( I particularly liked the piano in That Yellow Bastard) it did not distract and only added to the bleak visuals. Robert Rodriguiez has accomplished what he set out to do: pay homage to Frank Miller and experiment with his craft therein turn the movie-making industry on its head.
done and done. congratulations to Robert and Frank for a job well done.
and there is one thing i've learned from this adaptation: no matter how faithful you are to the book, the book will still (and always) be better.