Good.... pretty messed up though!

Rating: 7/10 (3 May 2005)

I watched this film thinking that it would be just another comic book adaptation along the lines of daredevil, the hulk and all the other pieces of crap that have been released recently. From this comment you can probably determine that I hadn't read the comics, 'cause Jesus... I mean I haven't seen such a constant stream of disturbing events since natural born killers (which in places has a similar visual style to this, although that might be something to do with the strange use of black and white and colour in both of them). There's murders, torture, body's with severed limbs, cannibals, corpses (and parts of), and overall extreme violence. I almost thought they over did the violence, I mean it's a film that I think a lot of people couldn't hack watching, and at times I had to look away. I think it might trouble me next time I'm stoned and in a dark alley! However, it is a bloody good film. The visuals are really interesting, and they get your attention and keep it throughout. It is generally exciting, keeps the pace up, and keeps a really militant Gothic feel that I haven't seen anywhere else before. It's got some fine women in it as well (although the fact they're killing people kind of detracts from their appeal). On the downside, the film tells the stories of 3 main characters, and they occasionally are seen in each others story, but there's no real correlation between the narratives. It doesn't draw them together properly in a pulp fiction type way or generate enough of a link between them, there just shown and then forgotten. I know that it was just displaying 3 of the characters in Sin City rather than trying to make some "inexplicably linked" style thing, but it still seemed too random and disjointed. The film really is flawed in many ways, and definitely not for the faint hearted, but overall it creates a really enthralling atmosphere and is entertaining to watch