Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (4 April 2005)

Films based on comic books (aka graphic novels) are often a hit or miss situation. There have been some great hits: Spider-Man, Batman, X-Men...and some notorious misses: The Punisher, Daredevil. Sin City, based off of Frank Miller's series of graphic novels, is not just a hit, it is without a doubt the best film adaptation of a comic ever. The story (or actually 4 different stories that are loosely connected by their shared setting) is captivating from the very start, filled with indomitable heroes, sympathetic anti-heroes, despicable villains, and one down right freaky Elijah Wood. The casting for this film employs a long list a stars and "little" stars which, to my pleasant surprise, emboldens an already spectacular film. Visually, the film is so sleek, so unconventional, so comic bookish it is down right beautiful. You feel like you are actually inside the graphic novel and almost forget that this is a live-action film. More films should be done in black and white (with a little bit of spot-coloring for intensity).
Bewarned, Sin City is not for the faint of heart. The film is filled with lots and lots of violence: a broken bone here, a decapitated head here, a dismembered victim here, an impaled head here, a guy punching another's face to a bloody pulp here...you get the idea. But, despite this, the violence is not "gratuitous" but completely necessary for the film. There are also nudity in this film along with one sex scene. The language for the most part is imperceivable, you are so engulfed by the story and the violence that the language just doesn't register. The film also deals with issues that are completely not appropriate for young kids: cannibalism, vengeance by any means necessary (see the explanation on violence), molesting serial killers, and torture to name a few.
The film is rated R for the above reasons mention and that warning should be heeded.
A masterpiece through and through, an instant classic.