There are films based on graphic novels (comics books) heroes and action stories and the genre is flourishing making happy studios and fans of all ages. And there are the ‘Sin City’ films which are graphic novels on screens. ‘Sin City: A Dame to Kill For‘ directed by Frank Miller (who also created the books that inspired them) and Robert Rodriguez is only the second in this genre. I liked it. I will try to explain the reasons and the difference.
source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0458481
The first thing to notice with ‘Sin City 2’ (as for the first one almost one decade earlier) is that it does not pretend to be anything else that it is. It is a comics story which is directly designed for the big screen rather than for the paper support of the graphic novels. The story (there are actually three almost independent story threads) is simple and relies mostly on action. No psychological or character development is to be expected from its heroes, they are from the first time they appear on screen until the moment they die or the end of the movie (what comes first) ‘The Drunken Righteous’, ‘The Dangerous Vamp’, ‘The Corrupt Senator’,’The Nice Face Gambler’, etc. The actors either wear masks (Mickey Rourke) or they are their own masks (Jessica Alba, Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Josh Brolin, Powers Boothe, Ray Liotta). Most of them create their own characters as graphical novel heroes. The only one who holds some mystery and hides – at least for some time – her real intentions is the character played by Eva Green. All seem to enjoy themselves greatly to be in the film.
(video source Movieclips Trailers)
All this concept is supported by a superb cinematographic solution which places the actors on sets that seem to be drawn in comics style and uses mostly black-and-white with touches of selected colors as in the mid 20th century comics books combined with the cinema masterpieces of ‘film noir’ from the same period. The execution is perfect, and the action scenes not only support the stories but also create moments of aesthetic wonder and fit perfectly in the atmosphere. The concept and the execution make of ‘Sin City: A Dame to Kill For‘ a rare combination of good entertainment and stylish cinema.