Comic book doesn’t translate well to film

Sin City; 2:06, R, for nudity, sexual content, and extreme violence; Grade: C

The visually stylistic Sin City, like Pulp Fiction, is not one story, but three, loosely tied together only because they take place around the same time and location. Mickey Rourke avenges the murder of a prostitute he thinks he loves, Clive Owen gets himself caught up in a prostitute gang war, and Bruce Willis hunts down a serial rapist. But the structure of the storyline is where the comparison to Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece ends, and anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is probably tripping (and I mean “tripping” in the mind-altered sense it was used in the 70s). Sin City is unique, and I appreciate what the filmmakers were going for, but the end product is kind of boring.

Tarantino may have lent his name to Sin City, as “Special Guest Director” (which means he did nothing), but he didn’t lend any of his talent. Absent are his eccentric dark humor, witty dialogue, and keen taste in music. Don’t be fooled by the ads—this is not a Tarantino movie. It’s a Rodriguez and Miller movie.

In their words, Sin City isn’t an “adaptation” of a comic, but a “translation” of one. Co-directors Robert Rodriguez (Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Spy Kids) and Frank Miller (creator and author of the comic) didn’t want to change anything about the source material, as is usually done, to make it fit the big-screen better. Everything you see in the movie Sin City is almost exactly as you’d see it in Miller’s series of “graphic novels” (nerds don’t like the term “comic-book”).

And maybe that’s where they went wrong. A movie is a movie, a book is a book, and all the people who try to sound cool by saying “the book is better” only make themselves look pretentious in the process. Movies and books are two completely different media, and what makes one kick butt might make the other one suck it. Let’s examine a few instances of what went wrong with Sin City.

More annoying than anything in the world, the entire movie is narrated to us, and it really would not be possible for me to exaggerate here. Perhaps this was intended as a throwback to old noir, but all it does in detach us from the movie. Apparently, it’s not good enough to see someone angrily yank their enemy’s guts out (yes, this movie is wantonly violent); we also need them to tell us that they angrily yank their enemy’s guts out, as they do it.

Sin City is pure fantasy. Okay, nothing wrong with fantasy. But Sin City goes so far over the top that it veers toward B-movie silliness, e.g., gunshot wounds to the shoulder only slow an individual down. Did John Wayne direct this movie?

And since we’re on the subject of fantasy and B-movies, let’s talk about the women in Sin City. These are the type of women who exist solely in the fantasies of pubescent boys. Or maybe I should call them “dames” and “whores,” as they are almost exclusively referred to, in Sin City.

How ludicrous does this fantasy become? One element of the story involves an army of Amazon women prostitutes who’ve taken complete militaristic control of an entire neighborhood. Neither the mafia nor the police will go near them, so they are finally free to control their own destinies. And with this ultimate power, they choose to continue prostituting themselves. Gosh, I guess that must be a really desirable job.

Hey, you know what? Maybe there’s a reason or two why most people stop reading comic books sometime in their early teens.

There is one thing, and one thing only, that Sin City gets right. Visually, this movie is very cool. Shot entirely in front of a green-screen, then digitally rendered, this movie looks and feels very much like a comic book. This works out extremely well, and for that alone, it is at least watch-able.

But you can’t hold a movie together on visuals alone. I doubt many people particularly enjoying this one, other than fans of the “graphic novels,” or the aforementioned trippers. If you fall into either of those two categories, more power to ya’—I’m sure you’ll have fun. Most people won’t.