Sin City: A Dame To Kill For
Nine years ago the original Sin City blew everyone away. Especially myself, a nineteen year old film student who was just being introduced to the world of Robert Rodriguez’s talents. It made waves with it’s film noir look, stylized sex and violence and most importantly; it watched like a comic book being played out on screen. This had never been done before. The closest was Warren Beatty’s 1990 film Dick Tracy. It was a nineteen year old’s wet dream: on screen violence and sex just dripping with style. And it was directed by two of the industries top tiers of cool directors: Rodriguez and Tarantino. It hit the theatres and the fans waited patiently for the sequel. And waited...And waited...
In between we got two other Frank Miller graphic novel movie adaptations. One a direct adaptation of his 300 and then that got a sequel which was not based on a comic book. Finally it was announced that the Sin City sequel was on it’s way. By this time, I can only speak for myself, but I was tired of waiting and over it. It seems like Sin City was the gravy train that just lost too much steam. We’ve seen this before. Sequels are bad if they are just more of the same. A Dame To Kill For brings in a little fresh air but not much.
Thanks to the many acting talents of Eva Green, the misogynistic original Sin City has now flipped a one-eighty becoming a female empowerment story. Eva Green steals the show once again with her story being the most captivating story of the film. Maybe it’s because she is naked for most of it, or because she oozes charisma. She doesn’t even have to talk, her eyes do it for her. This is the second Frank Miller story/film where she steals the show. The second half of the film follows Jessica Alba’s character on her descent into darkness. Also a story of female empowerment, it is weakened by continuing a story line from the first movie with absolutely no reminder of what happened in the previous film. Even owning the original, it has been so long, that I had no real idea why these characters were behaving this way. We just get random appearances of Detective Hartigan (Bruce Willis’ character from the original) saying: “No Nancy! You deserve better!” But they don’t remind you why. While watching, it just reminded me: oh yeah there is another Sin City movie. Another better Sin City movie.
It’s not that A Dame To Kill For is a bad movie, it seems the same as the first one but different. As if some of the coolness has been somehow removed. The story is sloppier. Parts are a sequel, parts are a prequel leaving the audience no real reference points. The cast seems second tier with Bruce Willis (mostly) absent, Clive Owen gone. It feels like they couldn’t get some of the same actors from the first film so they were replaced: like Clive Owen for Josh Brolin or Josh Hartnett for Joseph Gordon Levitt. A Dame To Kill For is over the top serious, severely lacking in the dark humor the original had.The movie obviously has a bigger budget than the first. In the first film, things that were rendered in color had significance to the story. Now it seems random and chaotic. It’s still good, but the first one is better.
Nine years ago the original Sin City blew everyone away. Especially myself, a nineteen year old film student who was just being introduced to the world of Robert Rodriguez’s talents. It made waves with it’s film noir look, stylized sex and violence and most importantly; it watched like a comic book being played out on screen. This had never been done before. The closest was Warren Beatty’s 1990 film Dick Tracy. It was a nineteen year old’s wet dream: on screen violence and sex just dripping with style. And it was directed by two of the industries top tiers of cool directors: Rodriguez and Tarantino. It hit the theatres and the fans waited patiently for the sequel. And waited...And waited...
In between we got two other Frank Miller graphic novel movie adaptations. One a direct adaptation of his 300 and then that got a sequel which was not based on a comic book. Finally it was announced that the Sin City sequel was on it’s way. By this time, I can only speak for myself, but I was tired of waiting and over it. It seems like Sin City was the gravy train that just lost too much steam. We’ve seen this before. Sequels are bad if they are just more of the same. A Dame To Kill For brings in a little fresh air but not much.
Thanks to the many acting talents of Eva Green, the misogynistic original Sin City has now flipped a one-eighty becoming a female empowerment story. Eva Green steals the show once again with her story being the most captivating story of the film. Maybe it’s because she is naked for most of it, or because she oozes charisma. She doesn’t even have to talk, her eyes do it for her. This is the second Frank Miller story/film where she steals the show. The second half of the film follows Jessica Alba’s character on her descent into darkness. Also a story of female empowerment, it is weakened by continuing a story line from the first movie with absolutely no reminder of what happened in the previous film. Even owning the original, it has been so long, that I had no real idea why these characters were behaving this way. We just get random appearances of Detective Hartigan (Bruce Willis’ character from the original) saying: “No Nancy! You deserve better!” But they don’t remind you why. While watching, it just reminded me: oh yeah there is another Sin City movie. Another better Sin City movie.
It’s not that A Dame To Kill For is a bad movie, it seems the same as the first one but different. As if some of the coolness has been somehow removed. The story is sloppier. Parts are a sequel, parts are a prequel leaving the audience no real reference points. The cast seems second tier with Bruce Willis (mostly) absent, Clive Owen gone. It feels like they couldn’t get some of the same actors from the first film so they were replaced: like Clive Owen for Josh Brolin or Josh Hartnett for Joseph Gordon Levitt. A Dame To Kill For is over the top serious, severely lacking in the dark humor the original had.The movie obviously has a bigger budget than the first. In the first film, things that were rendered in color had significance to the story. Now it seems random and chaotic. It’s still good, but the first one is better.
