However, from Ralph Bakshi’s Robert Crumb adaptation, Fritz the Cat, to 2012’s Judge Dredd re-imagining, Dredd, there are plenty of comic book movies that don’t mention superheroes at all. These movies are also far from family-friendly, much like director Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City, a 2005 film noir adapted from the comic collection of the same name by Frank Miller. With a massive ensemble cast led by Jessica Alba and Bruce Willis, Sin City is a three-part anthology whose gritty, innovative storytelling revolutionised comic book movies as a genre.
Sin City Remains One of the Best Comic Book Movies Ever Made
Miller’s original Sin City comic book series was a neo-noir anthology that ran from 1991 to 2000, and Rodriguez’s movie is adapted from three of the books in the series. Its interconnected stories focus on a grizzled ex-con hunting his love interest’s murderer, a hard-boiled cop who saves a dancer from a twisted, terrifying serial killer, and a PI who helps a group of embattled prostitutes to take on the mob and their corrupt cop collaborators.
These plots might sound like familiar crime movie cliches, but Sin City’s story could not be less predictable thanks to the movie’s stunning, immersive visual world. Outside of Alba and Willis, Sin City’s absurdly ensemble stacked cast includes Clive Owen, Rosario Dawson, Brittany Murphy, Elijah Wood, Mickey Rourke, Josh Hartnett, Alexis Bledel, Michael Clarke Duncan, Benicio del Toro, Carla Gugino, and a whole host of other stars. However, it is the movie’s groundbreaking, visually striking utilisation of digital photography that makes Rodriguez’s Miller adaptation truly soar.
Where many comic book adaptations are content to look like muddier, visually greyer versions of their high contrast source material, Sin City accurately recaptures the comic book’s world of shocking whites and deep, endless blacks. While all of Robert Rodriguez’s movies are highly stylised, the director unlocked a whole new level of visual slickness in Sin City that he hasn’t recaptured before or since. Watching the movie feels like flipping through the source comics, with all the jaw-dropping artistry that implies.
Sin City’s Long-Awaited Sequel Was Always Doomed To Be A Letdown
Sadly, Sin City’s success inevitably meant that the movie’s long-awaited sequel, 2014’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill for, could not quite compete with the original movie’s impact. Although this sequel featured an early impressive cast, including Josh Brolin, Eva Green, Lady Gaga, and Ray Liotta, Sin City: A Dame to Kill for failed to recoup its $65 million budget upon release. Critics, meanwhile, were left underwhelmed by the eponymous setting’s second screen outing.
Some reviewers blamed the lengthy runtime, some called the writing sophomoric, and some said that the sequel simply failed to replicate the striking brutality of the original movie. However, all these critiques overlooked the biggest issue with the follow-up. After Sin City successfully redefined the parameters of what comic book movies could be expected to achieve visually, everything from 300 to The Dark Knightborrowed from the original movie’s style, thus diluting its individuality by the time its sequel finally arrived almost a decade later.
