SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR - Movie Review

 Title: Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
Running Time: 102 min
Directors: Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller
Starring: Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eva Green, Rosario Dawson, Bruce Willis, Ray Liota

Review:
When Robert Rodriguez pitched Frank Miller the idea to put his graphic novel into film, Miller doubted that it would work. Rodriguez however, stayed persistend and asked the comic-book writer to let him shoot a sequence that, if he still denied, would become a cool short film at the very least. This experiment ended up to be the opening sequence for one of most accurate comic book adaptations of all time. "Sin City" became an instant cult hit and even won the Technichal Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival 2005 for its unique visual style. After a long wait of nine years (i.a. due to some production issues) we finally get to see a second batch of Miller's stories translated into a film.
"Sin City: A Dame To Kill For" brings back the great neo-noir elements and the over the top violence from the first movie, but doesn't manage to have the same impact its predecessor had. The actors are all doing a damn good job: Newbies Brolin and Gordon-Levitt show they can fit in this universe just as well as the members of the old cast, and Eva Green gives us all she's got, which is very little when it comes to clothing, but makes her the perfect woman to give this movie its title. Jessica Alba upgrades her performance from the last movie, but it is Mickey Rourke who remains the showstealer with his perfect portrayal of the brutal and yet somehow likeable colossus Marv. With 3D in the mix, Rodriguez even managed to take the visual one step further, cleverly using the third dimension as stylistic devise in certain shots throughout the movie.
Nonetheless, the film still feels much smaller in scale than the original. The main reason for this are probably the stories: Inspite of maintaining the same great atmosphere, they just don't seem as thrilling and emotionally captivating, most likely because they are simply missing a creepy villain. While "Sin City" had a mute teenage cannibal, a yellow-skinned rapist and a half-beheaded corrupt cop, this installment settles with much more common bad guys like a mobster/senator, a money-grubbing femme fatal and a nearly indestructible henchmen. That big parts of all stories are set in the same bar, and that the main story also mostly takes place at one particular mansion, does not help to make the movie feel larger either. Lastly, the film feels much more episodic than its forerunner as the way the stories are pieced together isn't as smooth.
All in all, "Sin City: A Dame To Kill For" is a very good time and a feast for your eyes, but doesn't quite hold up to the 2005 cult classic. For all that, I am extremly curious what Rodriguez and Miller can come up with next. Although, sadly, this might rather be a question of "if", considering this movie's box office numbers...

For Fans Of:
Sin City (2005)
300: Rise of an Empire (2014)
The Spirit (2008)
The Expendables 2 (2012)

Click Here To Watch Trailer!

And check out my friend's review over at B.A.'s Screentest for a second opinion!