It’s a sin Green can’t save this
Comic-book guru Frank Miller and director Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City was a commercial and critical hit back in 2005.
Strangely, especially in this boom period for all things superhero and vigilantes, it has taken nine years for a second visit to the sleaze, violence and grief-packed metropolis.
Primarily based on Miller’s novel of the same name, this follow-up anthology serves up five different tales, including two original stories — The Long Bad Night and Nancy’s Last Dance — created for the film.
Returning players, including Jessica Alba (Nancy), Bruce Willis (Hartigan) and Mickey Rourke (Marv), are joined by newcomers Eva Green (Ava), Joseph Gordon-Levitt ( Johnny) and Josh Brolin (Dwight).
Miller and Rodriguez adopt an “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” approach and serve up more of the same, with a visual style dominated by a black and white palette with the odd burst of colour (blood, fire) and uber violence in a film noir-influenced story world.
But this sequel lacks the pulpy energy and originality of its predecessor. It’s always a very watchable film — but that’s it. And given the expectation levels laid down by the original, “watchable” just doesn’t quite cut it.
Because most of the content is set before events in the first movie, we know many of the characters’ fates, so it lacks tension.
The co-directors also, unwisely, choose to leave the weakest story until the end: Nancy’s Last Dance focusing on Alba’s stripper’s unconvincing transformation into an assassin.
As before, we’re also dealing with very adult fare. There are no jolly green Hulks or wisecracking Iron Men here and the Tarantinostyle cartoony violence allows broken fingers, eyeballs pulled from sockets and severed heads to pass through the censors’ watchful eyes.
Top tale honour goes to the mid-section’s A Dame to Kill For, thanks in no small part to Green’s performance as the titular Dame.
Not for the first time, Green is the best thing in a flawed flick as the ultimate femme fatale. With her sparkling green eyes, bright red lips and love for nudity, even a bath is made to look like the opening credits of a Bond movie for this memorable villainess.
Powers Boothe (Senator Roark) makes for another menacing antagonist and Rourke’s Marv is a fun, hulking presence in the film’s otherwise pitch-black tone.
Apart from Green, Gordon-Levitt is the newcomer who fares best, oozing old-school suaveness in the two-part The Long Bad Night.
Conversely, Brolin never convinces in the role played by Clive Owen in the first movie and cameos from Christopher Lloyd and Lady Gaga amount to little more than “Oh, look who it is” moments.
Taken on its on merit Sin City 2 would probably be lauded by many.
But following on from the groundbreaking original, it can’t help but feel like an inferior retread.