A comic book, not a movie

Rating: 8/10 (18 August 2005)

I really like the movie, but it is a comic book. That is not a bad thing, and it has been brilliantly done. But it is not a movie.
Remember when The Superman Movie came out? "you'll believe a man can fly". That's the premise of a movie, movement/action/sound. The action in SIN CITY is mostly a transition from the comic book panels. Brilliantly done, but it is not a separate vision from the comic book, it is a reproduction of the comic book.
Those that have called this the best comic to movie venture ever are correct, if you want a complete remake of the comic. But shouldn't a movie be something different? Shouldn't film take advantage of its medium over that of a comic book?
The editing in SIN CITY is exceptional, but only in recreating the feel and experience of reading the comic. This then again, is not a bad thing, and I really enjoyed the movie, but it was not a different experience from the Comic. The characters did look like actual humans rather than the comic figures they are, and the casting and look of them was great.
The action though, the essential element a movie has over other medium, seemed to be the challenge to the film makers. How to transpose the still life frame of a comic to the thousands of frames of perceptually continuous movement of a movie? Well, they did it.
Even the most intense actions films had a deliberate stop and go edit to them that created a nearly seamless transition of moving from panel to panel in a graphic comic book. The movie is unique in its success in creating this effect and from a technical achievement deserves accolades.
But for me, the attraction of comics to film is to see a different representation of the characters, plot, genre and theme of the comics, while taking advantage of the medium. This is the same reason comic readers enjoy reading comics written and drawn by different people.
Each keeps the source material, but add a personal view into the soul of the characters and their world. The movies of Spiderman (especially #2) and Batman Begins have done this best, while Unbreakable did it from a completely different perspective (building tension though pacing-a film technique). These movies bring the characters and their world to film and let us experience them in a film, not as a panel by panel remake of an existing comic.
Enjoy the movie for what it is. A good movie brilliantly recreating an exceptional comic book. Not a great film using source material from another medium.