Captivating, but...

Rating: 7/10 (6 April 2005)

Sin City is everything it's supposed to be. It's faithful to the original material, near-flawless in the execution, violent, visually engaging, and innovative. The latest definition of cool since Pulp Fiction. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
However ..
You can't blame anyone (male or female) for despising the movie. It's probably one of the most misogynist films ever made. With one exception, every female character is either a hooker or a stripper, and with no exceptions they all rely on a man to get them out of trouble. Jessica Alba tried to defend the movie in the press by saying she thought all the female characters were "empowered". I guess you could see it that way if you considered "whores with guns instead of pimps" to be empowerment.
The problem, if one insists on seeing it that way, is the source material. Comic books are one of the last American bastions of chauvinism (along with Tom Clancy novels). Whether you're talking comics or graphic novels, the authors are almost exclusively male, and the intended audience is as well. Women  whether they are heroines, villains, or damsels-in-distress  are there to be provocative and sell copies, and that's about it. Granted Frank Miller has transcended and redefined the genre in many ways, but even he stuck to this standard with Sin City.
Some would accuse the detractors from failing to "look past" the violence, chauvinism, and titillation to see the movie's real themes, but there's a fair question of whether the movie is really about these things or just using them to tell the story. In the end they are inseparable, because these stories can't be told any other way. And if someone can do without these stories being told at all, you have to respect that.
As I guy, I would still recommend this movie. It's supposed to show you some dark places.