Sin City: A Dame to Kill For Movie Review

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For brings back the cool and unique style of creator/writer/director Frank Miller and writer/director Robert Rodriguez. But it didn’t bring back the engaging stories and characters that the first film brought.

In the first Sin City, we were introduced to three main characters in three stories, The Hard Goodbye, The Big Fat Kill and That Yellow Bastard. Now, the characters were well developed. As the stories progress, we get to know more and more of each of the main characters. And the development also extended to the minor characters and even the not cameos and extras.

Now, we move forward to Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, a sequel which to nine years to make. It still has three stories, A Dame to Kill For and the never published The Long, Bad Night And Nancy’s Last Dance which written by Miller for the film. But it fails to follow in the original’s footsteps.

Of the three stories presented, only the titular story, A Dame to Kill For, manages to bring and engaging story arc. In the first Sin City, each of the three stories was engaging on its own. But the same can’t be said for the sequel. The other two stories appear to be rushed. There isn’t any strong development and they are not memorable.

I’ve read A Dame to Kill For and I was surprised to see Eva Green bring to life Ava Lord. She was mesmerizing and she did the character justice. She really was a dame to kill for as she showed her bewitching beauty and killer charm. Josh Brolin did a great job as Dwight though I was really hoping to see Clive Owen after the surgery. Brolin brought a new side to character which works well in the continuity of the storyline towards The Big Fat Kill.

Mickey Rourke returns as Marv and appears in all three stories including the opening segment of Just Another Saturday Night with heavy parts in A Dame to Kill For and Nancy’s Last Dance. Like before, Rourke brings Marv to life as he was presented in the graphic novels. But this time, he takes a step back as a supporting character. But he still manages to steal the spotlight whenever he is on screen.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who plays Johnny in the film, is one character that not well developed. When JGL is on screen, we still see him as JGL. Carrying the story of The Long, Bad Night is Powers Boothe who reprises his role as Sen. Roark. We get to see Boothe bring more ruthlessness to the character which we only got short screen time in the first film.

As for Nancy’s Last Dance, Jessica Alba reprises her role as dancer Nancy Callahan. Alba brings a darker side to the traumatized little girl who is out for avenge the death of Hartigan, played by Bruce Willis. For this story, Miller once again failed to develop it well. We know that Nancy is troubled of the death of Hartigan. But the steps that lead to her avenging Hartigan’s death were uninteresting and predictable. Even the final confrontation between Senator Roark and Nancy is forgettable and lacks spark that made Sin City a memorable film.

The first film had four segments with three of those the main stories. That film opened with The Costumer is Always Right with Josh Hartnett and Marley Shelton. And it closed with that segment with Josh Hartnett’s character in the elevator with Becky, played by Alexis Bledel. For this film, we get Marv in Just Another Saturday Night which ended with questions which were never answered in the film. the film also didn’t close like the first. It ended with Nancy’s Last Dance and then credit roll. It left some questions and plot holes.

It may have been the long time after the original or just poorly written stories, but Sin City: A Dame to Kill For doesn’t live up to its predecessor. The thing carrying this film is A Dame to Kill For specifically Eva Green. Whenever she is on screen, you are glued to it. But after that, you feel like you can doze off for a while and wait for the next head being decapitated.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For brings the unique style, sex and violence of the first but lacks the strength of the story. It is a bland follow up which will be easily forgotten. I give it 6 out of 10.