A living comic book ... spectacular.

Rating: 9/10 (10 April 2005)

It's certainly true that lately we've been bombarded with many big-budget Hollywood adaptations of comic book movies, and that many of them have been bad. The problem wasn't necessarily with the movies themselves, but with their lack of originality. They all go for the same dark, Gothic Batman-esquire style, which, appealing as it may be, frankly just gets a little boring. We've been waiting a long time for someone to bring us something truly original in this genre ... and here it is.
"Sin City" tells three different stories, all of which take place on the same night, and all of which are connected by at least one character and common themes. It's dark and it's bloody and, to be honest, a bit silly, but all in all it's a great work of fantasy. The actors relish both in their character's originality and in Frank Miller's gritty, ingenious dialogue. Plain and simple, this movie is a mini-masterpiece.
Very good performances all around from stars Clive Owen, Bruce Willis and Elijah Wood (an unusual role for Elijah, but he pulls it off extremely well). The standout performance, however, comes from Mickey Rourke as "Marv". He's probably the least well-known of all the main cast members, but this may well change after this. All of the supporting roles are filled out extremely well also ... Benicio Del Toro, Nick Stahl and Rutger Hauer in particular give memorable, if short, turns as their various characters.
After seeing Sin City you're left with the impression that you've just watched a computer generated animation rather than a movie, such is the visual feel of it. It is truly a direct translation of the comic book, and something which has never been done before. The only comparison I can come up with is a computer game -- "Max Payne", which itself is done in the style of a comic book, and like Sin City it mixes film noir with a Gothic horror style. This is, without a doubt, the finest comic book movie I have ever seen.
This movie deserves to be a hit. It deserves to have sequels. Anything else, would be a travesty. An injustice. A sin.