Violent and cliché

Rating: 1/10 (8 June 2005)

If you're interested in how comics are translated to film in an innovative way, check out 'American Splendor' and 'The Hulk'. If you're interested in film noir, check out 'Blade Runner' and 'Angel Heart'. If you're interested in black-and-white movies with some color here and there, check out 'Rumble Fish'. If you're interested in time-warped storytelling, check out 'Pulp Fiction'. If you're interested in blood and gore, check out 'Braindead'.
All of the movies mentioned above are more original than Sin City. Moreover, Sin City is just an accumulation of all the clichés invented in the films above, and by extension all Hollywood films since 'A Wonderful Life'.
I saw this film and I couldn't help but wonder about the American people. One comment on this board read 'the violence is cartoony so it's not too disturbing, but there is some nudity so leave the kids at home'. In other words, it's okay to watch heads get mutilated, decapitated, and blown up - but it's not okay to watch a naked human being. I'm seriously wondering why people feel killing - termination of life - is OK to show to kids but sex, the creation of life, is not.
When I saw 'Kill Bill' I was already quite intrigued that the director could shoot such beautiful images and yet only uses them for showing violence and murder. I saw the same film again with 'Sin City' - only this time it wasn't a pastiche of martial arts clichés, it was a pastiche of martial arts, film noir, and comic clichés. This left me highly unimpressed with beautiful imagery or supposedly surprising plot details. Actually, I've noticed that when the audience cracks up over inventive killing or mutilation, it's often a nervous reaction which people confuse for humor.
Oh man, I've seen to many of these vengeance films. Why does the bad guy always need to die? Why does the hero always need to place himself above the law? Why does anybody feel the need these days to make yet another movie about a guy killing all the baddies for a girl? The latter actually happens three times in this movie. This is all getting so old. I literally yawned when 'the mob' was introduced, and when we got a scene closer comprising of a zoom on a tough guy with his voice-over saying 'the big fat killing', I decided I'd look up my old IMDb user name.
Avoid this one. See original films, instead. Life is short.