Sin City
Sin City is a unique movie in many ways. It's a movie that was shot exclusivly before green screen, and unlike Sky Captain, uses technology to make it make it more stark and gritty instead of busy and eye-catching. It is also and incredibly faithful adaptation. It is the comic book, scene by scene, line by line. The list of things changed is exceedingly short. Maybe a few scenes cut short, some stuff added to make more connections between stories, and less nudity. It is also in the minority as a comic book movie that works.
Sin City (comic and movie) is all style. The idea that it's the bleakest, dreariest Noir city (a kinda hybrid of LA and Vegas). Frank Miller shows this city to us by giving us random instances of life as usual. The stories are basically blood soaked romances, where battle-scared protagonists take on corrupt cops, the mafia, or anyone else in thier way for the hard luck dames that they love. It is stright forward and unrelenting in its commitment to its style and feel and is unique in the comic book world. It is fitting that the movie should be a uncommon exersize in pure stylized filmmaking.
Robert Rodgriquez made a great choice using green screens and CG. He wanted to get actual black and white backgrounds (not the grey that we are accostumed to). Rodriguez (and Miller himself) do an awesome job putting together the world of Sin City. The violence, the settings all work really well. The actors all do good jobs, but the acting really gets kicked up a notch in the second storyline (The Big Fat Kill) when Clive Owen and Benecio Del Toro show up. Owen gives us that rough edged likeablity that he's so well versed in. Del Toro is fantastic as an abusive boyfriend. Both elevate the movie from just reading off the comic book page to infusing it with feeling and really reveling in the material (especailly the end of that particular segment). Notable also is Bruce Willas, who seems a little iffy at first, but when his story arc comes back, he comes back with a vengance, the essential hard boiled, straight arrow cop. Quentin Tarantino hops in to direct a scene where Owen is arguing with a severed head. He adds to the surrelism of the scene with flashing splashes of color in the background.
The downside is that it does get a little cartoonish at times (as due to so much CG and whatnot). The movie, also, as hard as it tries cannont compete with the stark black and white Miller was able to conjure on the comic book page (he claims to have done it in black and white because he will only have his artwork colored by his wife). And there are some things that one can get away with in comic books a lot easier than can be done on film.
Overall, one of the better comic book films and a remarkably faithful adaptation
Sin City (comic and movie) is all style. The idea that it's the bleakest, dreariest Noir city (a kinda hybrid of LA and Vegas). Frank Miller shows this city to us by giving us random instances of life as usual. The stories are basically blood soaked romances, where battle-scared protagonists take on corrupt cops, the mafia, or anyone else in thier way for the hard luck dames that they love. It is stright forward and unrelenting in its commitment to its style and feel and is unique in the comic book world. It is fitting that the movie should be a uncommon exersize in pure stylized filmmaking.
Robert Rodgriquez made a great choice using green screens and CG. He wanted to get actual black and white backgrounds (not the grey that we are accostumed to). Rodriguez (and Miller himself) do an awesome job putting together the world of Sin City. The violence, the settings all work really well. The actors all do good jobs, but the acting really gets kicked up a notch in the second storyline (The Big Fat Kill) when Clive Owen and Benecio Del Toro show up. Owen gives us that rough edged likeablity that he's so well versed in. Del Toro is fantastic as an abusive boyfriend. Both elevate the movie from just reading off the comic book page to infusing it with feeling and really reveling in the material (especailly the end of that particular segment). Notable also is Bruce Willas, who seems a little iffy at first, but when his story arc comes back, he comes back with a vengance, the essential hard boiled, straight arrow cop. Quentin Tarantino hops in to direct a scene where Owen is arguing with a severed head. He adds to the surrelism of the scene with flashing splashes of color in the background.
The downside is that it does get a little cartoonish at times (as due to so much CG and whatnot). The movie, also, as hard as it tries cannont compete with the stark black and white Miller was able to conjure on the comic book page (he claims to have done it in black and white because he will only have his artwork colored by his wife). And there are some things that one can get away with in comic books a lot easier than can be done on film.
Overall, one of the better comic book films and a remarkably faithful adaptation