Review of Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014) by Troy C — 17 Sep 2014

It's hard to believe that Sin City was released nine years ago. A trailblazer in the gritty, shadowy and gleefully violent subgenre of comic book adaptations, Robert Rodriguez's imaginative take on Frank Miller's source material was astonishing, and a sequel was thoroughly deserved. Alas, A Dame to Kill For is about 5-6 years too late and what was once ground breaking and edgy is now standard and soft. Repetitive, uninventive and a tad stale in parts, this follow-up is essentially a carbon copy that can't reach the glorious heights of the original. Yet, if judged on its own, there's enough B-grade joy on offer to ensure it's a passable popcorn flick if you have a couple of hours to waste.

The noir-ish visuals are still beautifully gloomy - although the increased injection of colour is to its detriment - and the hyper-violence is fantastically excessive as expected. The cast are uniformly decent, with Eva Green particularly amazing as a scintillating femme fatale whilst Powers Boothe commands attention as the sneering, ferocious big bad and Mickey Rourke's Marv is again a darkly humorous highlight. Employing the same narrative formula of three separate stories rolled into one, the focus on Nancy's (Jessica Alba) revenge plot is misplaced and should have given way to Josh Brolin and Eva Green's dangerous liaison, which is criminally ended around the 70 minute mark. There is, however, a nice streak of pitch black comedy throughout the movie that lands a few nervous laughs, which Rodriguez/Miller deserve credit for. Inarguably a huge let down when placed by the side of its predecessor, but if pulpy, unhinged and stylishly gory flicks are your cup of tea, then this is worth a peek nevertheless.