What does everyone think? I know there’s been a lot of anticipation for this film expressed by Dopers.
Although I liked the movie, I’m trying to shake a vague feeling of disappointment. I think there’s a lot to like about it, and overall I think it’s a good movie, just not the great one I was hoping for. There are elements - especially a lot of the dialogue - that I believe worked better on the page than on the screen. Even I, a Sin City comic fan, felt like MST3k’ing a few scenes.
Mainstream reaction should be extremely interesting: at an afternoon matinee with digital projection, which I assume attracts the diehard viewers, in a theater about 1/4 full, I noticed five people leave and not return before the start of the second storyline.
Please, for the sake of those poor souls living in areas where the film won’t be released for weeks or months, box spoilers.
I’ve never read the comic books but I just saw the movie tonight and totally dug it. The visual style is so arresting and unique it’s hypnotic. The stories are economical and tight and fast moving. The characters. even the most minor ones, are all well drawn and interesting and well-acted. Marv is my new hero. Elijah Woods ruled as the freaky cannibal. Who knew Frodo could be so creepy? Benico Del Toro? Awesome. So is Clive Owen. So is Nick Stahl as Yellow Bastard.
It was extremely violent but it wasn’t realistic violence, it was comic book violence. The protagonists take way more punishment than real people ever could. They also perform a lot of physical feats (Marv especially) that are so over the top and cartoonish that you can’t take it seriously. There’s plenty of bare T&A which might be offensive to some (not me, but someone else, maybe). It’s not like any other movie I’ve ever seen.
I want to see it again to clarify the chronology and connections of the storylines. In fact, there’s one thing I didn’t quite get and which I hope somebody can help me out on…
What was the deal with the Josh Harnett character and who was he working for? Why did he shoot that chick? Was it revenge for that whole Old Town thing?
I thought it was a tour de force piece of filmaking for Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller and I would love to see them work together again.
the pros
The acting and the characters. Brilliant throughout. I loved the three main characters.
The visual style. The scenes with Elijah Wood’s character blew me away. Along with the rest of the movie.
The faithfulness to the source material. I haven’t read the comics but I could have seen a lot of stuff that could have been censored out that wasn’t.
The characters again. Brilliant
The length, ok I got restless, but I don’t like short movies.
the cons
Some of the content. Its a personal con, just cause some of the things in it
The Yellow Bastard, the cannibalism, the mutilation and tortures
were a bit to much for me. But I can’t fault it just cause I was put off by it.
The pacing. Some bits were a bit to fast for me, especially Marv’s. I realize it was to be more like the comic strip, but some of those shots could have used a extra moment. However, in some places it worked perfectly.
All in all, I will see it again, and it was an amazing piece of work. Not perfect, but probably as close as the script could get to it.
RE: Josh Harnett
The first scene was shot long before the rest of the movie by Rodriguez. It was used to pitch the film to Miller. It has nothing to do with the rest of the story until the end. Its just a Hitman who kills his victim after seducing them. He killed the girl just cause that was his job.
I thought it was awesome. The amount of violence didn’t actually bother me that much, but I have a strong stomach. From the volumes I’ve read, I think they chose the wrong Dwight story for this time around, but that’s just a personal preference.
I just addressed this in another thread. The part at the beginning is based on the short story “The Customer is Always Right”. It was the first part filmed, and used as the pitch to Frank Miller.
Josh Hartnett is the Salesman. Girl in the red dress is the Customer. He’s an assassin, and I’ve always been under the impression she hired him to kill her (“I’ll cash her check in the morning”). I think we’re supposed to think she’s running from something so bad that having a guy kill her clean is better than the alternative. At the end…I don’t know. I haven’t read The Big Fat Kill yet. I assume he’s been hired to kill Becky, but I don’t think Becky’s the one who hired him. And the Old Town hookers take care of their own business, so…I don’t know who hired him.
As far as the timeline goes, Hartigan’s story happens first (Marv at bar), Marv’s happens second, and Dwight’s happens third (chronological clues from comic). “The Customer is Always Right” could happen at any time, as far as I know. Does that help any?
I have not yet seen the movie (planning on it on Sunday) but I have seen the Josh Hartnett bit.
That’s all there is to that story, a short called “The Customer is Always Right”. It doesn’t have any relation to the other stories that are used in the movie, at least not in the books. He was hired by the victim herself. Note the last line: “I’ll never know what she was running from. I’ll cash her check in the morning.”
Yes, I was a little confused because in the second part of the Hartigan story…
The Elijah Wood character was still alive…so I guess that means the entirety of the Hartigan story had to have taken place before the Marv story. Thanks.
Yeah, I thought that added a whole other layer to the movie, because Hartigan thinks it’s taken care of, and the audience knows this other…evil is still there on the farm, completely undiscovered.
I’m actually not a big fan of Sin City or Frank Miller in general, but a lot of the stuff worked for me in the movie a lot better than it did in the comic. I think a lot of it is that seeing it in a movie vs. a comic, the sheer over-the-top absurdity of what’s happening is a lot more apparent and that self-aware ludicrousness works a lot better for me than what I perceive to be kind of an earnest testosterone-fest masculinity in Miller’s actual work.
I really liked it. I can’t think of anything original to say- the visuals were amazing, all the actors were amazing- especially Clive Owen, Bruce Willis, Elijah Wood, and Mickey Rourke.
This isn’t a bad thing- but it was much more violent and disturbing than I was expecting. I went in knowing that it was an R-rated comic book movie, and that it would be extremely violent, but it was even more so than I expected.
About the Josh Hartnett character-
I was wondering after Bruce Willis’s story, how the movie would end, because I thought it would seem strange to just have his story wrap up the whole movie and the several stories in it, so I thought that was a good idea to have Josh Harnett kill someone at the beginning and then be about to do his job again at the end.
Sorry for the non-insightful post, but I just wanted to chime in on Sin City’s greatness.
I’m guessing that the first Hartigan scene was diredted by 'Special Guest Director Quentin Tarention". It had the same driving type shots that Kill Bill had. In the scene between Hartigan and his partner the acting was terrible and it made me fear that the whole movie was going to be that way. I’m glad it wasn’t. The only other problem is that the film felt long to me. Way too long. Although I’m not sure what to cut. Maybe the second guy took too long to get to the farm.
But I was pleasantly suprised that Jessica Alba wasn’t a terrible actress. She’s no Meryl Streep but she didn’t suck out loud.
I wasn’t really ever all that excited about the movie because I’ve never read the graphic novels. I went and saw this movie as all of my friends have been talking about this movie for months. I have to say, I loved it.
I’m not a big violence person. When I got home from seeing it I spent a long time thinking about why I hate the violence in some movies (Passions) but I love it in a movie like Kill Bill (I, II) or this one. I hate this word as it’s so overused but, for me, I think it has to do with Motivation (in terms of the characters themselves and the director/writer). As ridiculous as it may sound to some, I didn’t find any of the violence in Sin City pointless and most if not all of it necessary.
I love the way the story was told as well. All of the small subplots telling one large story. I really liked it and the more I think about it, the more I like it.
I thought it was brilliant. I’ve read some of Sin City (A Dame to Kill For and some other bits) and I was a little concerned that the faithfulness of the adaptation might hurt the film; comics are a very different medium. I needn’t have worried, although I agree with Selkie that some of the dialogue (esp. in the Marv chapter) worked better on the page than out loud. But the whole thing was just great. (Not to mention gorgeous.) I’m also interested in reading the rest of the series in comics form as well.
I saw this last night and thought it was great! The fact they made a lot of it look a lot like Frank Miller’s style of drawing was awesome! And just a bunch of other little visual quirks one of my favorite being where Marv was putting on the jacket of the second thug he killed in the alleyway, and the shadow cast on the brick made those bricks stand out more…something about that was just neat.
I’ve only glanced through a few of the comics here and there, but I was really impressed with how true they managed to get it. I guess I should have expected it when I saw that Frank Miller actually let his name be associated with it in the advertising (unlike with other comic adaptations where the creator wants nothing to do with it, i.e. League of Extraordinary Gentleman.
I did feel that it went a little long as well, but I have a feeling a lot of that had to do with the fact you were watching a story, it wrapped, and you’re mind instinctively goes “Well, that sure was enjoyable,” and as your brain gets up to leave, the next story begins. Still, despite that fact, I enjoyed the whole thing.
Quick question for those who have read all the comics Do all the heros die in the books as well? It was really sad to see both Marv and Mertigan bite it at the end of their little stories, even though it seems Marv had a nice little ending in the grand scheme of things
Oh, and Elija Woods is now just under Christopher Walken and Garry Oldman as “The Creepiest Man Alive!” That vacant, unblinking smile…
…shit.
I haven’t read That Yellow Bastard, but I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have changed the ending. The Hard Goodbye, Marv’s story, played out just as it did in the comic. That said, Dwight survives both A Dame To Kill For (the first Dwight story–wasn’t in the movie) and The Big Fat Kill (the one you saw in the movie, no different than it was in the comic).
Wow! Well-cast, well-acted and well-directed. (And of course amazingly hot women.)
I am not familiar with the comic book, so I cannot say how true it was to the original.
It was too dark for me. I knew going in that it had that potential, so of course it was my fault for going, but I came away feeling - I dunno, angry or something. At the very least it was disturbing.
None-the-less, I think it was well done and recommend it for those who, unlike me, don’t mind such a dark movie.
Just came back from it and I’m a little overwhelmed. I’ve never been a big fan of Rodrigez before, I’m not a big comic book fan, and I never read Sin City but this movie just blew me away.
