Sin City: A Dame to Kill For - Analysis and Review

Too little too late

I've been waiting for this movie for 9 years. I can't believe that the first Sin City came out in 2005 while I'm writing the review of the second one in 2014. That is insane.

The Plot

A hot shot on a winning streak (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) plays a deadly game with the wrong man (Powers Boothe). Elsewhere, a broken man (Josh Brolin) rekindles an old flame (Eva Green) whose intentions may not be what he expects them to be. While all of this is going on, a stripper (Jessica Alba) is losing her mind after the loss of someone she loves (Bruce Willis) as a hulking brute (Mickey Rourke) watches all three paths go down the way they do.

Analysis

The first Sin City was an eye opener for me. It was the first movie to actually faithfully adapt a comic book with extreme detail. From shot composition to the dialogue spoken, it wasn't a movie. We were literally watching a comic book come to life. Not like superhero movies of the early 2000s that only take a few things from the comics then add a lot of things to make it something watchable for the general audience. The first Sin City wasn't thinking about the general audience. Directors Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino and original creator Frank Miller were thinking of how do we make this come to life. Not how do we adapt this comic to the screen. How do we make it move on the big screen. Not work. Move.

Its success became a rallying cry among comic book fans who pointed out that being faithful to the comic books does work. It lead to two other comics that are 85-90% faithful to their source material in the form of 300 (another Frank Miller creation) and Watchmen, both directed by current DC Comics film overseer Zack Snyder. It would also bring about the Marvel Cinematic Universe which has been considered to be mostly faithful to their properties in a way that other studios have not been. Bryan Singer's X-Men may have been the first film to prove that comic books can be the source of great dramatic material, but it is Frank Miller's Sin City that showed faithfulness to the comic can indeed transcend the pages of the comic to the big screen.

However, given that it has been 9 years since that rallying cry of creating better comic book adaptations, the luxury of having something like Sin City is no longer wanted.

Review

This film came out too late. Would it have been better received if it was released a couple of years after the first one? Just a little bit better. But the wait and the loss of interest in this project can be felt. The Box Office Numbers show it. And as a huge fan of the original Sin City, I have to agree. The wait is not worth it. It's not just the long wait that made this movie so so, it is the handling of the narratives within the story.

In the first story we got Johnny, played by a charismatic Joseph Gordon Levitt, who is literally the embodiment of victory when it comes to games. His feeling of having endless good luck on the slots and card games puts him up against Senator Roark played very evilly by Powers Boothe. His story was cut in half, acting like book ends sandwiching the titular "Dame to Kill For" story in between. Because of this the emotional impact of what happens to him is not really felt. It could be because his story doesn't have any large impact on anyone, even in the first half of the story. Had this story been really strong, then when the second half came back, the emotional impact would have made the conclusion a lot more satisfying. But it just wasn't. It probably would've been better to just play his story all the way through, but in the end it just didn't feel necessary. No matter how much you like Joseph Gordon Levitt, you will definitely like his character but you will not care about his story.

Then there is the second main story that takes up a majority of the film known as the "A Dame to Kill For" story. As I stated before, it cuts through the turning point of Johnny's story and takes up a large portion of the film. This story marks the return of Dwight McCarthy played by Clive Owen in the previous Sin City but in here he is now played by Josh Brolin. In it he finds himself entangled in a web of lies created by his former mostly naked lover Ava played by Eva Green. Through her manipulation of Dwight and every other man she comes into contact with, it all spirals out of control into a savage retribution story that we know will not end well for Ava. It is the longest story out of the many that are shown in this film, yet at a certain point you want it to end. As nice as it is to see Eva Green naked 90% of the time she's on screen, it almost becomes boring to look at her. And while Brolin does a nice job as Dwight, I do have to wonder why Clive Owen didn't come back when his rendition was suppose to appear. As comic book fans know, the Dwight in this story would later transform into the Dwight seen in the previous movie, but trying to transform Josh Brolin into Clive Owen just doesn't work.

Then there is the final major story that takes place after Johnny's and Dwight's which is referred to as Nancy's Last Dance. In this story, Jessica Alba reprises her role as the stripper with heart of gold named Nancy, who is suffering from the loss of her one true love, Hartigan played by Bruce Willis. Hartigan appears as a ghost in the story, but is unable to comfort the girl who loves him as he watches her go crazy. So crazy to the point where she decides to kill Senator Roark, the man responsible for Hartigan's death. This is definitely the best acting that Alba has done, but given the length of the story and how most of her screen presence throughout the movie consists of her doing sexy dancing, she didn't have enough time to grow. Which is a shame, because as the big finisher of this movie, you'd think it would be longer and more exciting.

I shouldn't really compare this movie to the first one. but it has to be done. In the previous movie, the stories were all given enough time to breathe and were able to complete their runs from start to finish before the next one takes over. Even the opening short story of the first one was more compelling than the cartoon violence opening of this film. In here, the stories have uneven lengths and it is never really sure when their stories end. I'm sure the cast is having fun doing this film, but for some reason this film looks like a complete step back from the previous one. It feels fake. Unlike the previous one that feels like a comic book, this one just looks cheap and poorly made. The action scenes in this one look even more unrealistic compared to the stylized action in the first one. It just becomes jarring and could easily remove an audience member from the experience.

The only good thing about this movie was Mickey Rourke as Marv, but even then his compelling character from the first movie devolves into being observer and muscle in this movie.

Final Thoughts

This was a huge let down. The 9 year gap didn't help this movie. And in a world where comic book movies  evolved, this movie didn't seem to evolve with it. It is stuck where it was back then, and while that is more attributed to them being trapped in the boundaries of the comic book, it really shows how far we've come from wanting faithful adaptations of comic books. We seem to have grown past the literal faithfulness and just want faithfulness. This film is more of a cheap imitation to what the first one is. Still made with the same mindset in mind, but that is probably why it failed. And given it has to remain trapped in that mindset, then this film should've came out earlier than later.

SCORE: 4/10 - A big disappointment yet still looks cool but will get boring

Catalyst Comix - Comic Review

The Deconstruction of Deconstruction = Reconstruction

As a comic book reader looking for properties that think outside of the box or just flat out weird, this comic immediately caught my attention. When it was announced that Dark Horse Comics (mostly known for the publishing house of Hellboy) was going to revisit their superhero pantheon through the writing of one, Joe Casey, I was immediately intrigued. Casey's mission for the reinvention of these forgotten heroes who couldn't compete with the big two (DC and Marvel) was pretty straight forward: Don't compete, but be different. Casey even states it himself that while he has worked for the big two, he feels the companies place limits on just how far their characters can be taken.

Casey knows that deconstructing superheroes has gone mainstream and that going back to classic super heroics has also resurfaced in recent writing. However, he does feel that superheroes are locked in a constant state of predictability. Or if it isn't predictability, it is a forgotten idea that resurfaces as new only to be later discovered by some fans as a repurposing. Thus bringing the cycle back to predictability. Now, Casey does not believe that he can escape the cycle. However he believes that superheroes shouldn't be stuck in the same never ending battle of good versus evil. He believes in doing things differently, and exploring it through different eyes. The eyes of three artists specifically. And those three artists possess art styles that will never be used for the Big Two. But because Dark Horse was taking a risk with forgotten heroes, no one would decry this change. After all, Catalyst is about change.

The Structure of Things

Casey applies a rotating anthology structure for this 9-issue limited series. Each issue contains three stories: one main story and two supporting stories. Every three issues, the main story rotates to a supporting story with whatever supporting story was next in line steps forward as the new main one. These three stories are all written by Casey, but drawn by three different artists. The same method of rotating artists applies to the cover art as well. 

The First Story in Cycle - The Ballad of Frank Wells

In the first story, Casey delves into the idea of the Superman with Dark Horse's own rendition of the character called Titan. However in this story, he's only referred to as Frank "Titan" Wells. The story opens with a bang, by having the apocalyptic blockbuster final battle front and center as our introduction to this Superman character. The main theme of this story deals with what does a Superman in the real world really have to deal with and just how many problems can he solve that are not super villain related. Sure, an exploration of that has been seen before in various Superman comics, but with Frank Wells as the lead, Casey is able to take it a bit further by showing the real world politics of being a Superman. That doesn't mean it isn't superhero-y. It still read very much like a classic superhero comic but in modern syntax.  Artist Dan McDaid was responsible for the art in this comic. Although his art style is not used for modern superhero comics, it is the art style out of the three artists that is more closely related to the standard superhero art style. And it makes sense given this story is the most superhero of the two.

The Second Story in Cycle - Amazing Grace

In the second story, Casey examines the Wonder Woman archetype with Dark Horse's resident power woman called Grace. While she does have Wonder Woman level powers, she appears to be more science fiction oriented yet possesses control over star crystals that can teleport her through unspecified yet limited distances. Like Wonder Woman, Grace has her own form of paradise. That paradise being Golden City, a place that she apparently had a hand in building. While the story isn't an extreme character examination of the role of a Wonder Woman type character, it is an examination on what the character means to people. Grace is pretty much looked upon as the ultimate role model who surpasses all the other superheroes in this universe. It really delves into the relationship between Grace and Golden City with an unusual crisis (a suave alien who makes women uncontrollably horny except for Grace) and how not only herself but how the city deals with the crisis. It shows the power of a positive female role model, who I should add although dressed in skin tight clothes is not showing off any skin, and how that can influence an entire city to be better. It is probably the most complex of the three stories as the crisis starts out simple which then evolves into something else completely. Paul Mayberry is the mastermind behind the art for this story, and it can almost be considered the middle ground between McDaid's style and Ulises Farinas'. It is definitely a nice balance transitioning between the two, and he does a really good job at drawing a diverse range of women. By diverse, I'm not just talking about race, I mean age and size.

The Third Story in Cycle - Agents of Change

In the third story, Casey takes a semi-intersting look at the superhero team dynamic. The cast of characters for this story consist of Elvis Warmaker, Wolfhunter, Ruby, and the Rebel Twins. While the first two stories are direct examinations of iconic heroes, this story doesn't seem to be directly reflecting any specific team. This story is a little bit harder to get into because of that. It shows us the more original superhero characters of the Dark Horse pantheon, but given how the previous two stories have been examinations of heroic archetypes we recognize, this one doesn't really hit home that much. It appears to be more of a commentary on mainstream media and itself rather than the idea of the superhero team. The closest thing I can think of as a good comparison is that its a "getting the band back together" story. A shady business man hunts down all these former superhero comrades and offers them a deal to rejoin to change the world... for real this time. That pretty much sounds like how a band reunion sounds like. Hell, the characters all sound like the names of rockstars with Elvis Warmaker being the most obvious. And yes, he does have a pompadour. But I believe Casey saw that the team looks like members from a band and just ran with it. Was it a smart choice? Yes. Does it work out perfectly? At first no, but when you think about it, it is a brilliant idea. So really it is more like a band reunion movie starring superheroes dealing with a threat that doesn't really seem like a threat. It is the weakest of the three in terms of story, but it is the strongest in terms of actual commentary. For this story, it is no wonder the art is handled by Ulises Farinas. His style is definitely not superhero, and it reflects in this story that doesn't really feel like a true superhero story. But that is exactly why it fits.

Overall Impressions

Casey has pretty much accomplished his goal of creating a weird superhero comic book with three very non superhero art styles. Does it accomplish saying what it needs to say? I'd say it is more successful with Grace's story in that it sells the point it is trying to make through greatly executed storytelling. Frank's story comes off a bit heavy handed as a commentary about Superman, but is still entertaining. And the Agents of Change story is brilliant, but it will take the reader a few moments to think about in order to fully engage how brilliant it is. Otherwise, it would be written off as the least interesting, when it is in fact a hidden gem. I will say that while the superhero story telling is definitely there, it will not play out exactly the way one would want it to. There is a sense that it is being different for the sake of being different. While to some that is considered a bad thing, for this I wouldn't necessarily think so.

It offers a really interesting story and look at familiar characters by using forgotten characters to get Casey's views on superheroes out there. And it really is out there. Casey even acknowledges that although he wishes this comic would be the domino that causes the ripple to change the way we all look at superhero storytelling, he also knows well that it won't be the one that topples. No, he thinks of it as the domino that is waiting to be knocked over. And in order for it to be knocked over is not just for the strange storytelling in this story to carry over to the rest of Dark Horse, but to the big two as well. I hope it does, because as much as I like reading Fantastic Four and Superman Unchained, even I think superhero storytelling and visuals need to change.

SCORE: 7.5/10 - An overall average for this 9-Issue Limited Series
A thoughtful examination of superheroes that isn't a complete deconstruction.

This series is now collected into a single trade paperback. Here is the cover: