"A Darkness Is Here in the Nursery"

Rating: Null/10 (7 September 2005)

There were feeble screen adaptations of comic books. There were quite ingenious ones, like, for example, Tim Burton's "Batman" movies. "Sin City" sticks somewhere in the middle. Unfortunately, with its nose definitely towards the option number one. There is a refrain in the movie declaring: "In this City you can find anything". Actually, it' s quite opposite to the truth - not a lot, in fact. And the main weakness here seems to be an obviously incongruous combination of the movie's sheer gruesomeness and its utterly superficial attitude.
The latter manifests itself in almost every element. The plot situations are insignificant. Had the characters happened to have at least some dimension they could have been considered cardboard. As it is they are transparent. While justified in a way - since the material derives from comic books, all this shallowness could have made a fit for another Rodriguez's endeavour in the area of entertainment for kids or some half-comedy like his "From Dusk Till Dawn". But it's hardly appropriate in the movie where every next minute someone dies having previously vomited a gallon of his own blood.
Some performances do not improve the situation either. Nancy Callahan, who is quite convincing in her incarnation as a child, instantly ceases to be so as soon as is transformed into her grown-up Jessica Alba version. Apparently, it's a full-time job to conjure a spark of something genuine out of this cute but totally inexpressive and utterly phoney, especially as it comes to anything sex related, starlet. It partially saves the day for her, but hardly for the viewer, that she happens to be accompanied most of the time by another unabashed paragon of creativity and invention - soon to become an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters Mr. Willis. Who is customarily delivering his two and a half expressions of a badass with a heart of gold we have already seen on a zillion previous occasions. Other performances are pretty decent, including Mickey Rourke as Marv, who through a few pounds of make-up delivers another brick into his welcome comeback, and Elijah Wood as a sinister unblinking man-eater. But the actors are unable to drag the movie by themselves.
So, as a result, all this Rodriguez/Miller collaboration's infernal playground with all its pretentious "darkness" happens to be suspended in the void - in the wake of its unfortunate players. But if the creators didn't forget to supplement their performers with a CGI background, they have completely missed all the opportunities to add any substance to their work in all other respects. And in the end the viewer is left with just a series of visual attractions the degree of attractiveness of which is sometimes controversial.
In general, I would just say that to stick to such a superficial approach while making a movie for adult audiences is not good enough - of course, if we are not in the realm of pure visuals meant exclusively for such audiences, but it wasn't the case here, was it? Oh, yeah, talking about dirty pretty things - special thanks to Carla Gugino. Her nonchalant moonlit walk brings the only definite touch of allurement to this not highly compelling construction. I saw another review on this title summarized: "An overrated movie, nobody will remember in a year". In a year? Dude, you're being way too generous. Of course, apart from its inevitable sequel.