One awesome cinematic experience.

Rating: 8/10 (27 October 2005)

It's ultra-violent, it's sexist, it's bloody, it's vicious, and it's not Tarantino. Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino's best friend (they sometimes refer to each-other as 'brothers'), brings us the latest Tarantino-fest. It's called Sin City.
I never considered Robert Rodriguez to be a genius, nor a good filmmaker. His repertoire includes such masterpieces as "From Dusk 'Till Dawn", "The Faculty", the "Spy Kids" trilogy, "Once Upon A Time In Mexico", and more. Just to make it perfectly clear, that last sentence was completely sarcastic. Sin City is, hands down, his best movie, and also the only one of his movies that's actually any good. And yet, the next project he chose for himself is titled "The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D". That should explain it all. It always amazed me that the same director that directed From Dusk 'Till Dawn (one of the most violent and gory movies I've seen) also directed Spy Kids. And yet, somehow, he does it.
With Sin City, Robert Rodriguez brings us his next violence-fest, and also (somehow) one great movie. And violent is an understatement. Sin City is VIOLENT. It is not for the weak stomached, nor for the weak-hearted. Anyone who can get past that part, though, and stomach the ultra-violence, will have a blast.
Sin City is based on the comic book series written by Frank Miller. Miller was very hesitant when he was approached regarding the making of the movie. He had a bad experience when something he wrote was completely butchered by Hollywood, and changed into an ultimately horrible movie (Robocop 2). Rodriguez managed to convince Miller, though, by telling him that Sin City wouldn't be an adaptation of the comic book, it would BE the comic book. Rodriguez committed to making his adaptation of the comics as accurate as possible. And thus he did. Sin City is literally identical to the comics. There isn't even a screen writing credit, because no screenplay was written. The plot and all the dialogs are lifted directly from the pages of the comic books. And that's not all: Rodriguez used the comics as storyboards for the film. The shots and overall look of the film is EXACTLY how it is in the comics. Rodriguez even gave Frank Miller credit as director, even though he didn't direct a minute of the movie. Rodriguez claimed that Miller's comics were such an important part of the overall look of the movie that he had to give him credit.
Sin City isn't only unique in that sense. It is also unique in its technical aspect. The actors were filmed in front of a blue-screen, and everything else was added to the film later. And I mean everything. Not a single set was built for the movie, all the imagery aside from the actors (including cars and other objects in the foreground, not only the backgrounds) is computer generated, and added in after the principal shooting of the actors. Also, it was filmed on High Definition Digital film, which makes Sin City the first fully, 100% digital motion picture.
Sin City also showcases an outstanding visual language. The entire film is in high contrast black and white, like the old film-noir movies, save for a few objects in the frame. An example of this can be seen in the following image: Even if you're not into the plot, or the characters, the film is simply gorgeous, and a treat to look at.
I won't say that the acting is top notch, because it isn't amazing, but it isn't bad, either. No performances really stood out, but they were all quite fine. What I can say, though, is that the cast is absolutely sensational. The cast includes: Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, Benicio Del Toro, Elijah Wood, Jessica Alba, Nick Stahl, Rutger Hauer, Rosario Dawson, Jamie King, Brittany Murphy, Michael Clarke Duncan, Alexis Bledel, Michael Madsen, Josh Hartnett, and more.
Plot-wise, the film is based on the first three stories in the Sin City comic book series. These three stories are intertwined within one another, Pulp Fiction-style. The plot of every one of them is fairly simple, and I won't write it here because there really isn't any point. The characters are also unavoidably shallow. None of them have much depth, and they're very black-and-white, in the sense that it's perfectly clear who the good guys are, and who the bad guys are. The main characters (three of them) are the only ones who have even the slightest bit of depth, but this depth is composed of one, single motive that keeps them going, and nothing more deep and complex than that. I was actually surprised how good I felt after seeing the movie. Usually, I only like meaningful movies. And when I say meaningful, I don't necessarily mean movies with a profound social message, or deep philosophies or metaphors. I mean movies that have even the slightest bit of depth in them. This could even mean a very simple movie that simply has ultra-deep and multi-layered characters. Sin City has none of these, and yet, I really enjoyed it, and thought it was great. Just goes to show that sometimes, movies don't have to be profoundly deep to be good.
All in all, Sin City is a great movie, and one awesome cinematic experience. It's definitely not for kids, though. And kids, don't try to convince your parents to take you. They'll never forgive themselves if they agree. But if you can get past the ultra-violence, you'll have a great and enjoyable cinematic experience.