So the wait is over. I saw Sin City over the weekend.
I'm still processing my reaction but overall I'm pretty confident in saying I liked it.
First off, it's GORGEOUS! Finally a wider audience will be able to experience the compositional virtuosity of Frank Miller. Frame composition, dialog, pacing, mood were all spot on.
And here's the problem, generally my disappointment comes from the fact that this was SUCH a faithful translation. I just re-read these three stories only a few weeks ago and so it really felt like I was reading them yet again. By the end, I was frankly a little bored.
Now I know a lot of people have been talking about the violence and simplicity of the story but anyone who's read these books knows that the story is NOT what these tales are about. Sin City is about mood, tone, and visual fireworks. What Miller does with black and white (and some spot colors) is truly spectacular and that comes through in spades here. The stories/characters/dialog is all secondary. Yeah, it's violent, it's pretty dumb, it's incredibly sexist, and good god the script is over-boiled, but holy crap is it COOL!
Casting couldn't have been more perfect. Elijah Wood's Kevin was probably one of the ickyest things Ive seen on film in a long time and actually outdid the paper version in creap-factor by half. Mickey Rourke is awesome. Bruce WIllis is, once again, proving that he is one of the under-appreciated ACTORS of our time. And hay-zeus on a hobby horse, Jessica Alba is SMOKING HOT!!
Something that the movie did hammer home is that the first Sin City tale (newly retitled "The Long Goodbye") really is the best. Marv is the quintessential Sin City character. Hartigan and Dwight are pale reflections of the hulking monster.
Really I think that this is one that I'm going to enjoy this one more on DVD than in the theater. To be able to take each individual story as it's own unit and to really study the visuals on their own merits will definitely be better in the comfort of my living room.
# posted by uuuhyeah @ 8:02 PM
