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Sin City: The Movie

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the_limey
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Sin City: The Movie

Post by the_limey »

I have just (about 2 hours ago) seen this movie and I come home to see what my fellow SYMers think of this film only to discover that there is almost no mention of the film post-release, so I was wondrring if anybody liked it?

Personally, I think it's some of the finest movie-making since Blade Runner. Frfom the fatastic, almost palpable atmosphere to the fine acting (except Clive Owen whose accent didn't quite gel for me). In fact I think the best performance was from Elijah Wood as 'Kevin'- never uttered a word and still a menacing performance. Thankfully, the film was an almost totally faithful retelling of the books- something even Lord of the Rings couldn't quite manage.

So, basically, I'm looking for the opinions- good or bad- of those who've seen the film- especially fellow Millerites who may disagree with me on how faithful it was. Oh, and if you haven't seen the movie, feel free to comment, just don't slag it off if you don't know what your'e talking about.

Cheers.
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Aegis
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Post by Aegis »

Well, it's somewhat easier to faithfuly reproduce 40 pages of comic text, than it is to reproduce 400 of literature text, but I digress.

Having not read the comics, I don't know how faithful it was, but the comic afficondo's that I know all seemed to have been quite pleased with how it was done. As for myself, I enjoyed it. It was nice to indulge in some overly cheesy film-noir style script. I especially enjoyed staying true to the style of the comics, with colour only being used to emphasis certain aspects on screen.
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Post by Denethorn »

[QUOTE=the_limey]
Personally, I think it's some of the finest movie-making since Blade Runner. [/QUOTE]

To quote Pulp Fiction: "That's a bold statement"

I've had to suppress my excitement for this movie when I first saw the trailer for it at the cinema. I find it is a nightmare trying to find a good movie to view from the pre-release trailers, since they always add the exceptionally explosive/humorous/powerful slices of the movie to it.

It looked film noir though, with a respectable cast line up. And if you think it to be the finest since Blade Runner then I am expecting nothing short of a graceful and beautifully grimy film that Ridley managed to paint our screens with decades ago ;)
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Georgi
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Post by Georgi »

I was semi-expecting all style and no substance, having seen the trailer, but I was pleasantly surprised. It looks great, shot in perfect style for comic book film noir. The ensemble cast was very strong (though I have to agree with limey about Clive Owen's accent), although undoubtedly Mickey Rourke was the best in my mind - perhaps, though, that's because his part was the biggest. Even Josh Hartnett wasn't that bad - perhaps, though, that's because his part was the smallest. ;) I didn't think much of Elijah Wood, except that he is trying to make sure he isn't typecast as a hobbit.

I can't help feeling, though, that some of the violence was a bit gratuitously gory. There were scenes that I have no doubt would not have made it past the censors if they hadn't been done in such a stylistic fashion. They were, I suppose, integral to the portrayal of the vengeful characters. I just found them a bit excessive.

Does anyone know which part(s) of the movie "special guest director" Tarantino directed?
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Post by Vicsun »

[QUOTE=Georgi]Does anyone know which part(s) of the movie "special guest director" Tarantino directed?[/QUOTE]
It was in The Big Fat Kill, where Clive Owen drives Benicio Del Toro to the pits.

I wasn't too impressed with Sin City. It was certainly entertaining, but neither the style nor the story were all that. If it wasn't for Mickey Rourke, who was the best part of the whole goddamn movie, I would have been severely disappointed. Now, I'm just mediocerly dissapointed.
Vicsun, I certainly agree with your assertion that you are an unpleasant person. ~Chanak

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Aegis
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Post by Aegis »

It was very much a niche film, so it makes sense that the style or story didn't impress some.

BTW: Nice to see you making an appearance Gorgeous ;) Nice new Avatar. Been a while since I've seen Rynn ;)
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Post by Georgi »

[QUOTE=Aegis]It was very much a niche film, so it makes sense that the style or story didn't impress some.

BTW: Nice to see you making an appearance Gorgeous ;) Nice new Avatar. Been a while since I've seen Rynn ;) [/QUOTE]

Yeah, it's definitely not a film for everyone.

Ta, actually it's due to the new DF story over in the Fan Fiction forum, I used the portrait as a starting point for my character. Besides, I was sort of bored with the my little pony. ;)
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Post by Morlock »

I loved the movie. I thought the ending was brilliant, the perfect ending for the movie. It tells us, that no matter what, no matter the sacrifice Ratigan made, this is still a city of Sin. Can't wait for the sequels.
Don't know if there's a current movie thread in existance, so I'll also use this opportunity to say that I saw and loved Batman Begins. Oh, and that I can't wait for War of The Worlds.
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Post by frogus23 »

I thought it was atrocious.

The style was admittedly superficially noir-ish but since when has "It looked quite a lot like a film noir" been an accolade? Re-hashing the visual cliches of an old genre is not great art, no matter how cool they were the first time around. I think Chinatown was quite clever for succesfully transporting Film Noir into colour, (and not even dark colours) Sin City was contrastingly dumb for transporting film noir into the world of ultra-ironic camp, preserving the look by turning the contrast up to 200%...

The substance was mindless violence only - wasn't it? I found none of the characters engaging (they never did anything recognisably human or emotional, and hence were worse than comic book characers). Was there any moral? Or any exposition of any truth about the world? Or any deep insight into peoples psychology? Or any exciting new visual devices? Or any real sadness or real euphoria? Or any jokes that were not duke nukem style one-liners?

Basically there is a City called Basin City in which people kill each other all the time. I don't think the movie went much beyond that summary, so I reccomend that you read the poster and then don't bother seeing it.
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the_limey
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Post by the_limey »

Thanks, everyone for sharing your thoughts with me, good and bad.

That said, I thought I might take a moment to defend this film against your (admittedly articulate and well-thought out) critique frogus.

Firstly, the black and white/furious colour combo, if you're looking for something a little deeper than the fact many people (myself included) thught this effect was pretty good think of it like this- it's not just 'black and white', it's shades of grey. In the Town Without Pity, there rtelly is no good and evil, right and wrong only shades of grey and it takes something fairly extraordinary to stand out- like the Yellow Bastard or Nancy (tell me she wouldn't stand out wherever she went).

As to the substance of the film, it depends what you're looking for- I mean if you're expecting something with the brevity of War and Peace then you will be disappointed. But no, there was indeed emotion and insight into the characters' psychology- justice, vengeance and love were the whole driving force behind all three main characters- be it Hartigan and Dwight's attempts to protect that which they cared about or Marv's attempts to find the killers of his only love. A little basic and perhaps somewhat romanticized on my part but the point stands. Incidentally, I was particularly moved by Hartigan's sacrifice, both when I read it for the first time and by Willis' portrayal of it.

If you're looking for truth then you'll find that here too, as pessimistic as it is- the world is a dark and dangerous place, the existence of God is debatable if He would allow such travesties of justice and sometimes the only person you can trust is you.

At the end of the day, while I do think there's more to the film than you are giving it credit for, it's still your opinion and thank you for sharing it with me.
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Post by frogus23 »

I think the 'dark world' moral is better illustrated by the world itself. Anyway I can only say that I wasn't at all moved or engaged by it :( I guess this is what they call a difference of opinions.

BTW Brevity means shortness or concision - which is not War and Peace's claim to fame :p Maybe you mean 'gravity'. :)
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Post by the_limey »

[QUOTE=frogus23]
BTW Brevity means shortness or concision - which is not War and Peace's claim to fame :p Maybe you mean 'gravity'. :) [/QUOTE]

Yes I did, thank you.
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