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Straying too far from the source material usually ends in
disaster. There are times when certain properties are changed
so drastically that the die-hard fans of the source material
are lost and alienated. Yet when the creators are too faithful
to the material, it feels less like a movie and more like
a book on tape—the first two Harry Potter movies
are a good example, while the third film strikes a good balance
between cinematic and literary.
With Frank Miller’s Sin City co-directors Robert
Rodriquez and Frank Miller stay so true to the source material
that no considerations are made for the movie going audience.
True, Miller, who any comic fan will know wrote and illustrated
the various comics on which this film is based, would want
to stay as true to his material as possible, but the question
one should ask is: at what cost?
What we get here are three anthologies cut in the mold of
old Warner Brothers film noir movies that, like the comics,
owe a heavy influence to Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler,
and Mickey Spillane. We’re treated to gritty, hardcore
characters; flawed men and women thrown into spectacular circumstances,
complete with gritty voice-over narration and stark contracts
between light and shadow.
But unlike film noir of yesteryear, Frank Miller’s
Sin City treats us to a film so obsessed with its source
material that it becomes increasingly harder to sit through
as the film progresses. What we have here isn’t a movie
in the traditional sense, but an illustrated comic book; a
cold and empty film that relies solely on its aesthetic principles.
While it may be visually stunning for the first thirty minutes
or so, its style becomes too burdensome and the awe factor
wears thin fairly quickly.
In Sin City we are treated to three stories linked
by the notorious city. Marv (played by Mickey Rourke) is an
ugly brute of a man on a mission to avenge the death of Goldie,
the only woman who’s ever cared for him. On a highly
stylised rampage, he tracks her killer to a farm and discovers
that this man (played by Elijah Wood) is a fast-footed mute
who kills his pray and eats them.
The second story has Clive Owen as a man protecting his girlfriend
against her maniacal ex-boyfriend (Benecio del Toro). All
hell breaks loose when he tracks the vicious killer to a town
run by violent prostitutes.
Lastly, we have a story starring Bruce Willis as a cop wrongfully
imprisoned for murdering and molesting children. In reality
the savior of a molested child, and the mutilator of the molested,
he is released from prison to discover that the child he saved,
now 19 (played by Jessica Alba) and a stripper, is once again
the target of a vicious yellow man bent on revenge.
These are tales so hard boiled that the word 'hard' becomes
key here. As a whole the film is monotonous, the characters
woefully two dimensional and reacting solely to the events
occurring, and the narration, which is plentiful, is so gritty
and monotonous that it begins to grate on one’s nerves
after a while.
And what Sin City lacks in substance it makes up for
in style. Shot almost entirely in green screen, the movie
is little more than an animated film that just happens to
star living breathing actors. Presented in black and white
with occasional splashes of color, the film looks and feels
like a visual comic book, so much so that it becomes a distraction.
Ultimately, we’re treated to a film so dense and two-dimensional
that it feels like a two-hour trailer. It is flat, cold, and
empty. Pretty, sure, but excessive style doesn’t make
up for substance. And Sin City, though visually dazzling,
is a sad example of style over substance and the current trend
in which our culture applauds such movies.
How one can give a movie such as Sin City five stars
based solely on its style is beyond this reviewer. But that’s
the world we’re living in. Good movies fall to the wayside
while mediocrity rules the day. But then again, we have become
a society that increasingly adores mediocrity; a society that
has given Michael Bay, Paul W.S. Anderson, and Uwe Boll careers
while dismissing films by Spike Jonze, P.T. Anderson, and
Wes Anderson, to name a few.
Sure critics and cinephiles love them, but when it comes
to the masses they’ll take style over substance any day
of the week. So it’s little surprise that we’ll
be seeing two sequels to Frank Miller’s Sin City
in the coming years. After all, a movie this devoid of substance
was destined to become a blockbuster in our current brainless
climate.
DVD Extras
The only thing on the DVD is a brief behind-the-scenes promo
that isn’t – though obviously we have – even
worth mentioning. The juicy multi-disc set will probably come
out later in the year.
Conclusion: Movie 60% Extras: 10%
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