When Sin City hit the screens in 2005, it instantly attained cult status, with its faithful recreation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel and uniquely stylised look and feel that went on to inspire an entire generation of green screen worshipping filmmakers.
Sin City: A Dame To Kill For , the part-sequel, part-prequel coming nearly a decade later, rehashes quite a bit of what worked in the first part — this time in 3D — with very little innovation or excitement in terms of the storytelling. If you are familiar with the franchise, you know what to expect — episodes of revenge loosely strung together as an excuse to unleash graphic violence and gratuitous nudity.
Marv (Mickey Rourke) is back, so are Nancy (Jessica Alba), Hartigan (Bruce Willis as a ghost), Gail (Rosario Dawson) and Senator Roarke (Powers Boothe). The list of avengers this time also includes Dwight (Josh Brolin) who needs to get even with the titular dame Ava Lord (Eva Green) and Johnny (Joseph Gordon Levitt) who has a score to settle with Roarke.
But with the censors cutting out most of the sex and nudity, the graphic film loses out on quite a bit of character and the abrupt cuts further hurt the slow pace. Also, the repetition of themes, similarities in plot, and redundancy in action makes the noir film more dull than dark.
Revenge films need to quench the blood-thirst satisfyingly. Here, we feel a little cheated. The avengers try very hard but barely manage what they set out to do. The ending of The Long Bad Night (that accounts for almost half the film) feels anti-climactic as the “revenge” doesn’t quite feel like a win.
While Eva Green as the deadly femme fatale manages to keep the titular episode gripping with sheer presence, Rosario Dawson gets an extended cameo and Jessica Alba as Nancy takes a really long time — three or four strip-tease numbers — before she decides to wrap things up.
So unless you are a hardcore fan of the franchise, there is very little reason for you to catch this butchered version on the big screen.
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
Genre : Thriller
Director : Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller
Cast : Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Bruce Willis, Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Rosario Dawson, Eva Green, Powers Boothe
Storyline : Characters from the graphic novel-turned-film return to avenge killings of old and some new characters
Bottomline : With sex and nudity censored out, this stylised film loses quite a bit of its character
