I guess there’s spoilers, but you probably don’t want to see this movie… so in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really matter. Unless you are a die hard Sin City fan… then you might… but you really shouldn’t. Trust me, I’m a doctor. But not really.
Color me fucking stupid; But is this a prequel, sequel or both? There are no definitive lines for what is Pre Sin City (2005) or Post Sin City, the characters and storylines are chucked into a blender and thus we have Sin City: A Dame to Kill for; and for me, massive confusion.
It’s not that I’m unfamiliar with the comic, I’ve read The Hard Goodbye and browsed through the later installments due to boredom at book stores with decent graphic novel offerings. I’ve seen the first movie, which I absolutely loved, but the sequel/prequel/whatever is a nonlinear mess.
The film begins with Marv’s (Mickey Rourke) voiceover. Okay, that makes sense, it’s a prequel right? We meet a new player to both the film and the Sin City universe (Miller written and approved), Johnny (Joseph Gordon Levitt), who aims to beat Senator Roark in a game of poker to prove he never loses (he also has daddy issues), and is totally pointless in the film. We see Dwight (originally portrayed by Clive Owen) pre facial reconstruction as Josh Brolin, torturing himself over a woman, the dame to kill for Ava (Eva Green), who continuously uses him and who he always succombs to. We also get to hang out in Old Town with Gail (Rosario Dawson) and learn how Manute (Dennis Haysbert cast in the role after Michael Clarke Duncan’s death) gets his fancy golden eye. And then there’s Nancy (Jessica Alba), in a new Sin City story line written by Miller, boo hooing about John Hartigan’s (Bruce Willis) death which is part of the actual “sequel” (Hartigan kills himself at the end of Sin City 2005 after killing Weevil, Roark’s beloved yellow son, to protect Nancy) and with the help of Marv, enacts her revenge on Senator Roark (Powers Boothe). But here’s where it gets… wiggy.
If Nancy’s storyline is part of the sequel, how does Marv help her reap revenge? At the end of Sin City (2005) Marv is sent to the electric chair for “murdering” prostitutes and killing Roark’s Cardinal brother, who himself, was cannibalizing the women with an ultra creepy Elijah Wood (Kevin). Got it? Good. I understand that Marv can have a storyline in the prequel portion of Dame to Kill For and help Dwight with his lady troubles, but how the hell can he assist Nancy? It just doesn’t make sense.
Dame also suffers without a clear protagonist to balance out the other more maniacal and homicidal characters (Dwight, Marv, Gail… I guess Nancy?). John Hartigan, a Sin City detective who gave his life to protect Nancy in Sin City (2005) (Redundancy Alert), is a ghost in Dame to Kill For, but without his child-molester-killing heroics, there is no good guy of the bunch. All of them are just pretty fucked up.
For the most part, the casting is great and the cameos are fun (“Oh look honey, Christopher Lloyd!” “Shut up, I’m trying to watch the damn movie!”). Eva Green is incredibly over the top (and naked) as the femme fatale Ava that she’s on the verge of being “campy”, but I’m cool with that. I enjoyed Brolin (in everything except Jonah Hex) as Dwight, though he looks a decade or two older than Clive Owen’s version of the character (I suppose he had one hell of a plastic surgeon). Unfortunately, Alba is incredibly unconvincing as an alcoholic seeping into madness and depression (her stripper dancing is also pretty terrible… I would not give her a dollar and neither should you).
The cinematography of Sin City (2005) was fantastic, capturing the gritty graphic novel’s visual aspects perfectly and (at the time) was a unique facet of the film. This time around, and nearly a decade later, is nothing we haven’t seen in the first film or in The Spirit (which was a total shitshow) and thus ceases to amaze and astonish (and ultimately can’t save this film). The random bits of color in the first Sin City seemed to highlight details that were conducive to the plot (Goldie’s blonde hair) or violence, however in Dame to Kill For, there seemed to be no method to the madness. My eyes could not explain to my brain what colorized items I should be paying attention to, and which were just purely for an aesthetic presence. But whatever. A Dame to Kill For is still a visually striking film, it’s just nothing new or bold.
A Dame to Kill For is a half ass attempt at a sequel/prequel that was essentially unnecessary. The film isn’t entirely terrible, it’s just an incoherent, noiresque, ultra violent mess that only die hard fans of the Sin City graphic novels would enjoy. Let’s hope Rodriguez and Miller decide against a trilogy.
The Roman Verdict- C+
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