Sin City: A Dame To Kill For

Sin City: A Dame To Kill For is one of the most anticipated movies of the year for this writer.

The first film is way up there in my all time favourites list and a solid 5 stars and, unfortunately, this instalment falls a little way off the original.

First, the good points and this film gives satisfying prequel and sequel strands to these characters.

You see early Dwight and his ties to Old Town with a marvellous Eva Green as his former femme-fatale and then you see how Nancy copes with the loss of Hartigan and her attempts to get back at big-bad Rourke.

Joseph Gordan-Levitt's Johnny is a great new addition as well with a perfect tragic story arc some might say is pointless but actually makes a nice Sin City vignette.

Bad points and there's a little too much gratuity in this one.

The first teases you with violence played out in silhouette and very sparse nudity which suits the comic book mood, this one has blood and lap dancers in every scene and it does get a little too much.

Eva Green never puts a shirt on which does rather diminish her otherwise feminist character and doesn't reflect too well on Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez.

The fact that Clive Owen couldn't come back on board is also a real shame not only because it will confuse a lot of people but also because, good as Josh Brolin is as a stand in, Rodriguez feels the need to put a wig on him at one point to firmly ram home who he's supposed to be and it looks faintly ridiculous.

Also, Mi-Ho's character is changed as well which does jarr with the overall aesthetic and world that they created with the first film.

The first did an amazing job of marrying the style with real substance, this sequel ramps the style up a notch but falls a little short on the story.

Still worth a watch though and still Sin City.

4 stars ****