Sin City A Dame To Kill For Review: Another Day in Sin City

Sin City: a place full of violence, sex and inner monologues. In 2005, Frank Miller brought his acclaimed work to the silver screen that featured a star studded cast as well as a collaboration between Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino and Miller himself. The result was a film that brought something different to the movie world and it seemed to go pretty well with general audiences. Many hoped that Sin City would receive a sequel; but for a long time nothing but hints popped up. Fans waited years and years for it, but there was almost nothing about its development. Finally, the gritty comic series lives again in Sin City: A Dame To Kill For. This continuation brought several familiar faces back as well as adding some new additions. However, given the 9 year gap, was A Dame To Kill For worth the wait or one night is Sin City all that needed.




It is hard to crack down on the story seeing that the film is an assortment of tales. Like the first film, A Dame To Kill For follows several stories in the realm of Sin City. Unfortunately, this continuation does not handle its anthology well. First off, it should be noted that the film is a prequel, which explains the return of Mickey Rourke as Marv. However, the continuum of Sin City seems off. Maybe it was just me but there were points from the first film that didn't go together with this flick; such as Nancy's story. Did her story take place with the events of this film or was her story set after the events of the first film? It was hard to keep track of everything; and what did not help matters were individual stories seeping in together. Oppose to having each short story playing out its own film, the movie starts tales together; which only made things feel rushed and distorted. Each story in A Dame to Kill For was intriguing, but the lack of continuity and structure left the overall story beaten in the Old Town.

Like the first film, this movie featured a enormous cast. Its hard to say that the characters of Sin City stand out as they traded in character development for monologues. However, this is not to say the cast had bad performances. In fact, most of the cast were top notch in their deliveries. Two that stood out were Josh Brolin as Dwight McCarthy (who was played by Clive Owen in the 2005 film) and Joseph Gordon Levitt as Johnny. While neither have the performance of their careers, both actors give it there all in these roles; as they usually do.  Eva Green once again played a crazy woman as Ava Lord and she seems to be good at playing that kind of role. Add the likes of Mickey Rourke, Rosario Dawson and Bruce Willis and you have a enjoyable cast. Flawed, but enjoyable.

Sin City was full of crazy imagery and far be it for its successor to disappoint in this area. The cinematography was just as colorful and gritty like the 2005 film, but it may have been a little too much of  a good thing. While this factor was expected, there seem to be unecessary sequences that were there for sake of being imagery. What worked in this factors favor was the 3D. It is not often that I go to a 3D film or compliment the effect. However,  A Dame to Kill For certainly knew how to use the 3D. The movie used its 3D to the best of its ability, giving Sin City shots that was both atmospheric and exciting. If there was any comic book film that could make this effect worthwhile, it would be Sin City.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For was not as memorable as its predecessor. The likes of the story left the film with a lackluster feel to it. However, that is not to say this entry was a bad film. It had a strong cast and it had plenty of action to keep moviegoers interested. All in all, A Dame To Kill For was just another day in Sin City.