Review: Sin City: A Dame To Kill For - (2014) Was the nine year wait worth it?

(As always, potential spoiler warnings ahead)

The original Sin City came out in 2005 to mostly positive reviews. It was hailed as a highly stylized, action packed, guilty pleasure of a film. Had I been reviewing it back in the day, it would've gotten a 9/10, just short of being a masterpiece, but still a bad ass film. It was derided by some though as just mindless violence lacking a story. The sequel though does attempt to try and provide a more story driven film, but with actually quite a bit less violence as a result. Does it work out? Let's find out.

As always, it'll go plot summary, pros and cons, and final rating.

Like the first film, Sin City: ADTKF has multiple stories, some of which are broken up into multiple pieces. But for the purposes of this review, I'll tell the stories one at a time separately, marking any intersections that happen. What I can tell you though is that the film starts after the death of John Hartigan (Bruce Willis) but before the death of Marv (Mickey Rourke.) With that said, let's go to the individual stories.

Marv's Story: "Just Another Saturday Night"

The film starts with Marv at a car accident, trying to remember how he got there. Retracing his steps, he remembers that after leaving Kadie's saloon, he encounters four frat boys lighting the homeless on fire. He then chases them into the projects, his old deadly neighborhood, he dispatches of the frat boys with the help of the locals. Arguably the shortest story in the film, I honestly can't think of anything really wrong with it, as it just shows another night in the life of Marv. Mickey Rourke is just as good as he was in the last film, and he will be throughout.

Johnny's (Joseph Gordon Levitt) Story: "The Long Bad Night"

Johnny, a cocky young gambler, arrives in Sin City and finds himself in Kadie's place. He plays the slot machine's, hitting the jackpot every time. He attracts the attention of Marcie, who he brings with him into the back room poker game as a good luck charm. The game is being run by Senator Rourke (The father of the yellow bastard from the first film), and after quite a few impressive hands, he busts out Rourke. After a night on the town with Marcie, Rourke's goons find Johnny, and bring him to Rourke. He is then beaten and robbed of his money, and also gets his fingers broken. (At this point the film jumps to the next story.The following takes place where the film picks it up again. )Bloody and broken, he manages to find a doctor and gets his hand fixed. Heading back to his hotel room where he told Marcie to meet him, he realizes that she is unprotected. He enters his room, only to find Rourke waiting to chase him out. Heading to a diner, he decides he has to find at least a dollar, to pick up his winning streak again and be able to play in the next poker game. At the diner, a waitress takes pity on his condition and gives him the dollar. Earning enough money at the slots, he then heads to the game, this one also run by Rourke. I won't spoil the ending, but I will say this, I was kind of disappointed. Even with a couple of surprise cameos, I argue this is the weakest story of the four. It's not bad, but compared to the others, it just falls behind.

Dwight's (Josh Brolin) Story: "A Dame to Kill For" (Hey that's the name of the film!)

Years before his story in the first Sin City (where he was played by Clive Owen originally, but if you know the details of the first film, Clive Owen was actually "Dwight's new face") Dwight is working as a private detective, and leading a life of sobriety. His old flame Eva calls him up and asks to meet him, and that's actually as far as I'm going to go with the summary of this one. This is the main story of the film, easily the best one (it pretty much had to be,) this is the one where you'll notice the lack of violence from the first film. The story is actually quite impressive and well played out. The only real flaw with it is this silly side plot involving two detectives, while well acted by Christopher Meloni and Jeremy Piven, it feels like padding that only really serves one minor purpose that ultimately kind of feels pointless.

Nancy's (Jessica Alba) Story: "Nancy's Last Dance"

You get a glimpse of the beginning of this one during Long Bad Night, but the last story finds Nancy on the verge of collapse after the death of Hartigan. Deciding she has nothing to lose, she teams up with Marv and seeks revenge on Senator Rourke. Again, won't say too much about it, but this is the one that bugs me the most. It's mostly two details (one major and one minor) that again I won't spoil, but if you can follow the continuity of the films, leaves you with a couple of questions. While one is slightly easier to answer than the other, it does kind of hurt the ending if, again, you know the details. If you don't it should be find otherwise.

Summary's over, now the next step.

Pros - The film easily manages the same impressive visual style as it's predecessor, and everyone is firing on 100% acting wise. I can't think of any faults with the acting what so ever, even with the smaller roles.

Cons - The drop of violence in favor of more story telling, while mostly awesome, kind off leaves the stories more open to slight problems in terms of the smaller details. Dame to Kill For is the best story, but the other three don't match up to it. Marv's is too short, Johnny's has that really bland ending, and the small detail problems in Nancy's drag the film down.

Final Verdict: 7/10 - Overall, the film is great, but it does not live up to the original Sin City. It's still worth a watch, but if you want to go on a Tuesday, no one will blame you at all. With the box office returns at the time of this article, it seems like a lot of people might be doing the same.

So sadly, while still good, Dame to Kill For falls victim to the sequel syndrome. Still worth a watch though.

I'm not sure when the next post will be, but until then, you folks have a great day.