Interesting but repetitive

Rating: Null/10 (3 April 2005)

Unlike many reviewers, I have never read any of Frank Miller's graphic novels--so I can't comment on the authentic look of the film. I can say that the film is visually stunning, particularly given that so much of what you see is digitally created. It is truly a work of art to behold.
I can also say that the characters are all uniformly interesting to watch. Not just the characters made up prosthetically, like Micky Rourke as Marv, or Elijah Wood as Kevin. Every major actor is playing a singularly interesting character, and the interaction between those characters is compelling to watch, just as compelling as the visuals.
But for me, the problem is that, both the characters and the look of the film, are at the service of essentially the same story, told three separate times.
Possible mild spoilers.
The stories are all about cruelty and retribution, with some form of redemption at the end. Each story plays out like an Old Testament tale, which is alright for the first hour or so. But after a while, all the over-the-top violence and histrionics begin to wear you down. By the second hour, the movie has become predictable, and that's as deadly, in a movie, as any shot through the head.
Critics keep referring to Sin City as a return to Film Noir.
But great film noir, like Out of the Past and The Big Sleep, have a lot of elements to it besides violence. Sex, for instance. With femme fatales, who the antihero and the audience don't know if they can trust--and that creates suspense.
There are numerous women in Sin City--in fact women are the catalyst for each of the stories. But there's not much suspense surrounding who these women are, and what they might be up to. And except for the prostitute gang, the women we meet in Sin City are all ladies in distress--hardly what I expected to find going in to the film.
In the end, the only suspense in Sin City is what new and bloody way someone can get his head bashed in.
I would certainly recommend seeing Sin City. It is dazzling to look at, even more so than Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. I just wish that the story telling had kept up with the visual look of the film and the character creation.