Whether you’ll enjoy Sin City or not depends on your preferences.

Adapted from the graphic novel series Sin City is an anthology film, depicting four different neo-noir tales taking place in the same, crime-ridden city.

John Hartigan is a cop hunting a child-killer, Marv is a vigilante fighting his way through the criminal underworld to avenge his only love and Dwight is trying to protect his girlfriend from Jack, her ex-pimp.

I think most people are aware of the film’s distinctive visual style, its been praised for pioneering the look and feel of the comic book films that followed.

I’ll agree that the style is unique but for me it was very hit and miss.

Sometimes the style really works. The scene where Marv makes love to Goldie, the prostitute he falls in love with, is a good example.

While everything else is black and white, Goldie’s hair is yellow and the heart-shaped bed they sleep on is pure red. For me this illustrated the passion of the scene beautifully.

Other times the style was distracting. There’re many scenes where it looks painfully obvious it was shot in front of a green screen.

Overall Sin City’s style was certainly pioneering at the time and it deserves to be admired for that.

Now when looking at the film’s content and narrative the question of preference arises.

The characters are basically exaggerations of noir archetypes and they don’t undergo any dramatic changes.

If you don’t mind straightforward characters then you’ll enjoy Sin City, but if you’re like me and prefer stories with relatively layered characters then you may not find it as enjoyable.

I found the characters very un-empathetic and a bit boring which made it very difficult to follow the stories

In conclusion if you love stylistic films and extreme violence then you’ll love Sin City, but if you’re looking for something emotionally and narratively complex, I’d skip this one.

I give Sin City a decent 5 out of 10.

UPDATE: I’m on Movie Pilot! For those of you who don’t know Movie Pilot is a huge film site where people write about their favorite films and franchises. Its a bit like What Culture or Empire.

This is my first article which I posted a few weeks ago, its about what Dune (the David Lynch film) got right and why it should be more appreciated. The film is one of my all time favorites by the way!

So expect some extra content on there. Thanks! LD