Sin City - review

Last week, last wednesday i was lucky to go to a preview screening of Sin City. The show was put on by Pulp Fiction Comics and the cinema was packed. My shirt was pink and I sat with Emma. The crowd bristled with anticipation, Em asked me what the film was about. "Hot ladies and hot lead", "Ah a boy's film" Lights Out, pop corn munched, drink slurped. I was there because i won a competition through Pulp Fiction Comics, as the movie started i felt lucky. It started with a short story from one of the Sin City oneshots. In my uni days i attempted to shoot this very same story for my Media Production class but i couldn't convince anyone to be rained on for a day. The movie hangs together well and visually the movie is excellent. However, as I sat there at the Pulp Fiction Comics screening i got really annoyed with the narration. The exposition due to the episodic nature of the print version is understandable, with chapters released every month a line like "the pills make the pain go away" is bearable. In the movie, having Marv say every 53 seconds that Goldie's killers are going to pay is fucking annoying. Using the panels as a basis of the cinematography is fine, but the script in the caption boxes and speech balloons needs a bit of editting before having actors say it outloud. The spectre of George Lucas hovers over this film as well, i wasn't that amazed to read some of the actors never actually did their scenes in the same room. No wonder the acting was flat, I wonder if Rodriguez was in the same room as the actors did their scenes. Mickey Rourke stood out and Brittany Murphy had a bit of life, but Willis just went through the motions and the rest were boring and seemed lost. I never remembered the comic as particularly humourous and most of the time the violence was not played for laughs. But everyone in the cinema laughed, including me, when every Rodriguez showed us his really hates penises but part of me just thought is this the "bam, zap, pow" of the 21st century. Why couldn't it be played straight like the comic? I always pictured the violence in Sin City as 'kewl' like Chow Yun Fat shooting away with both guns blazing not the parody of a Peter Sellers fight. However, in terms of being technically innovative and creating an environment that's true to the comic, Sin City succeeds. I think it will be one of those films that grow on me and while i recommend it, it does have its frustrating weaknesses.