Sin City : J'ai tué pour elle

A Dame to Kill for is by no means a boring or bad film. It succeeds as a satisfying sequel to the far more novel and perhaps stronger Sin City... it is bloody, violent, beautifully made, with cool deep voices, nudity and clearly fitting into the film noir genre. Where it falls short is in the charactersationssliding a bit, the strength of two original stories, the change in actors and the gap between the first and second film. There is also a desperate need for more iconic moments which the Sin City comics and the film has plenty of, but they never really come in A Dame to Kill for.

The characters seems less edgy, less strong charactered and some despite being far more stereotypical carries less of a punch. Especially Marv and Dwight who are the central characters fall a bit short. With Dwight almost feeling detached from the story he is the centre character of. I never thought I would find myself ever thinking that Owen over Brolin. Rourke however seems to have lost some of his edge again, but still causes plenty of mayhem. The new original story lines is probably as good as the rest, but it feels like we never get a very satisfying end out the first one of it especially because it plays as probably the most straightforward story with less of the iconic art work or stunning scenes put in it, it relies on Gordon-Hevitt's abilities more than anything else. The second original story however fairs better mostly due to Alba's dancing and Rourke's brute. If one has not recently seen Sin City and goes to see this it can be a bit hard putting things into place in it's sequel... most people benefit from having seen Sin City recently in order to truly enjoy the film's anachronistic narrative.

It is an awesome film, I will not argue against that, and it does give people more of what they want from Sin City. And there is maybe couple of camels to swallow. But I think in time when seen in union with it's predecessor and sequel(s) it will come out stronger than it might appear now.

I saw the 3D version and surprisingly it actually works well for the film, although I am sure the film would be just as good in 2D alone. It is worth seeing in the cinema, it has the scale/action/importance and beauty to justify that. It will not be remembered for it's visuals as much as Sin City, but it will be recognised for how it fits into the Sin City style.

After 9 years Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller finally made a sequel to their masterpiece from 2005, Sin City, and.... no-one went to see it. One of 2014's biggest and definitely the most surprising box office bomb, critics were also fairly unkind to the film. It's not as bad as some say it is, but it's best summed up as this: The Kick-Ass 2 of 2014. An enjoyable sequel which lacks the original's impact and misses the point, and struggles to hit a peak when the scene stealer from the first is off screen. In Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, we return to the nastiest, darkest and grittiest city in comic book movies for more brutal stories of justice, sin and moral corruption. In one Marv becomes an amnesiac, in another a cocky gambler finds himself in trouble when he beats the wrong man at poker, in another Nancy Callahan takes revenge on the man who caused the death of John Hartigan and another involves Dwight's encounter with a mysterious femme fatale played by Eva Green. What's noticeable about these stories? They emphasize action and that wasn't the point of the first.

Sin City was a great film because of its emotional power and characterisation. Here, mostly we're getting black and white shapes beating each other up like some generic beat em up flash game with little subtlety or grace. The script sags in places and the film refuses to focus on developing its characters or some sort of emotional impact. It never goes into unwatchable territory, but it's just curiously flat some of the time and it's hard to understand why. All you know is you'd rather be watching the first movie. It's still visually mind blowing and has some beautiful shots. It's well acted by its ensemble cast with Mickey Rourke and Eva Green being the standouts. There are many different voice overs but the film manages never to feel pretentious. You'll likely find yourself moderately enjoying it throughout without ever being particularly interested in what's happening. It's pretty safe to say Sin City 3 will not be happening after this, but the legacy of the original has not been tarnished.

6/10

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is not a bad idea on paper. Frank Miller's Sin City universe is a rich and interesting setting, and as the first Sin City film proved, it translates to the silver screen beautifully. Unfortunately they decided to stick all the best stories into the first film, thus guaranteeing its success, but leaving the possible sequel without much material to use. Not that the stories used here are bad, they're just not as great as the ones used in the first one. Tellingly Miller was actually called back to write two new stories exclusively for the film. It shows.

However, there is one exception. The story named A Dame to Kill For. Considered to be one of the better stories in the original comic books, it's a good thing they still had one such story to wrap their movie around. And it is awesome. Just as good as the stories in the original film with same great quality acting, hardcore action and brutal visuals. No complaints.

The second adaptation story, Just Another Saturday Night, is really nothing more than an Ode to Marv (Mickey Rourke), and that's okay in my books. It doesn't have much of a plot, and the supporting characters are nonexistent, but it's a good opening piece.

The Long Bad Night, the first of the new stories, works because of its actors. Both Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Powers Boothe have amazing screen presence and as they're pitted against one another throughout the night the stakes keep getting higher and higher, with satisfying results. A fine story and I could see this as an original Sin City story.

Nancy's Last Dance, our last story, is unfortunately the weakest story by far. They clearly wanted to give Jessica Alba something more to chew with her character, but it just doesn't have that edge. You don't buy it. Still not awful, merely average.

Aside from the material, the biggest problem is the common sequel problem where they want to do the same that worked so well in the original, but with more oomph. Here it means more colour spliced into the black-n-white, and it's very distracting. The original used colour carefully, for emphasis, for popping up important details. Here it seems that every single frame has a splotch of colour in it, usually for no reason, they just wanted colour in their frames. And thus the distinct visual style of Sin City is shattered.

All in all Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is not a bad film by any means. It's disappointing, certainly, but only because I love the first film so much, and wanted more of that greatness, no matter how impossible it is to achieve. Still, a great movie to check out if you're a fan, but don't expect miracles.

Let me begin by saying that the first Sin City is one of my favorite movies of all time. I thought it was an absolute blast to watch, and the filming style blew me away.

A Dame to Kill For is the same type of movie as the first, but it is not executed quite as well. It may just be be cause the style lost some of its original appeal, but I thought it didn't live up to its predecessor. With that said, I still thought A Dame to Kill For was a great time at the movies. Everything about it was solid. It continued the action from the first and did not fail to keep me at the edge of my seat. And, Marv was his normal, b.a. self.

A Dame to Kill for consists of two story lines that are prequels to those of the first Sin City and one that is a sequel. I felt that it delivered very well in its attempt to support what happened in the first movie. I would recommend re-watching the first one so that you're fresh for this. Sometimes you can forget the names if you haven't seen it in a while.

Overall, this movie was great. If I had not seen the first Sin City, I would have been blown away.

I give it a 8/10. A definite must-see.

*Minor spoilers involving structure of the film, no plot points*

In short, it isn't nearly as bad as everyone is saying. Let me elaborate.

In case people don't know, the first Sin City from 2005 was based on the 1st, 3rd and 4th books in the 7 part series by Frank Miller. These follow the story lines of Marv, Dwight and Hartigan respectively. In addition to those, there are also a few shorts thrown in, either from the books or not. So, needless to say, Sin City and its sequel are both anthology films. If you want one single story that takes 2 hours, this may not be your thing.

Sin City 2 follows almost the exact same structure as the original, which I found nice. Sure they didn't do anything original with the structure, which was sort of playing it safe, but I liked it. It felt familiar and reminded me of the original which I loved very much. It begins with another short story, this time starring Marv. It rocks. It continues on with a new story not contained in any of the books. It stars Johnny, a gambler who "never loses". Mid way through, we cut to another story. This is the 2nd book, titled "A Dame to Kill For". If you've read this, you won't see anything new. Like with the first film, they essentially translated the story from page to screen, and it works for the most part. There was one detail I didn't like, but it doesn't last long. Then after that, we finish up the story with Johnny, and finally, we get to the revenge mission involving Nancy and her hunt for Senator Rourke. That's all I'll say about that.

Everyone is complaining about how the movie looks like a cutscene from a video game. They are sort of right, but not entirely. Even after waiting 2 weeks, I was unable to find a theatre in my city showing the film in 2d. It seems like this is happening more and more now. If you want to see an action movie in theatres, it's 3d whether you like it or not. Now, having not seen a 2d version to make a comparison, I can say that the 3d is most likely what makes it look so video game-y. I'm sure in 2d it'll look slightly better at least.

Update: I did see it in 1080p and in 2D, and it does look less like a video game cutscene. You can still tell that there's a lot of CGI, but it's done better than a lot of films.

Also, greenscreen sets have been used for over a decade now, I don't see why people are complaining so much. Everything is a CGI-fest these days, and this story, with a fantastic setting and extraordinary physics pulls it off nicely. You can tell, but it's far from awful.

Everyone is saying they loved the first one, but hated this one. I don't see how that's possible. They stuck very close to the original in most ways, such as cinematography, soundtrack, and directing, all of which were great (for a Sin City movie). Sure it isn't a masterpiece my any means, and it's not as good as the first, but it's super entertaining, very violent, and is sure to please anyone who enjoys the books or the first film. Forget all those jaded movie snobs saying it sucks. They're just focusing on all the negatives, and letting that cloud their vision of the awesome stuff.