Sin City: I’ll start with the good points, er, point: the film style. The use of black and white with just a smattering of color, the glowing white blood in certain shots, the stark shadows and bright lights – it was all gorgeous, just like watching a comic book come to life. A feast for the eyes, if you can handle something this gruesome.
Then there was the rest of the film. The dialogue was full of overblown metaphors, typical of the most outrageous satire of film noir. To make matters worse, most of the acting was on par with a readthrough at your average high school drama club. The fact that over half of the speaking was done in internal monologues didn’t help either.
Then finally there was the story. I was so bored I almost walked out an hour into it. See, the problem was that I just didn’t care. None of the characters were more than cardboard cutouts, walking stereotypes. You had your sexy, scantily-clad, gun-toting hookers; your ugly, monotone, gun-toting superheroes; your almost amusing but similarly ugly bad guys; your corrupt cops, politicians, and clergy; and a whole lot of blood. That’s about it – no originality anywhere to be seen.
There you have it: a bunch of stock characters spewing stilted dialogue while blowing each other’s brains out and surviving unlikely physical assaults. Oh yeah, and just to annoy you a little bit more, they jump around in time about halfway through. I didn’t think a movie this violent could possibly be so arm-chewingly boring. Don’t waste your money or your time.
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