There?s a group of people in the videogame world known as “graphics whores.” You know immediately if you?re one of them. Symptoms include uncontrolled drooling when new screenshots are released, a desire to evaluate the merits of particle effects and normal mapping, and the unabashed defending of a videogame as being “Best. Game. Ever.” if it looks good…even if the gameplay itself is incredibly tedious.
If Sin City were a game, graphics whores everywhere would most certainly call it “Best. Game. Ever.” The art direction in this recent DVD release, which is based on the Frank Miller comics, is drop-dead gorgeous. What the directors have managed to achieve in terms of reproducing the comic-book appearance is nothing short of mesmerizing. For a few moments Sin City has a distinctly Pleasantville feel, with its black-and-white imagery sprinkled with passionate accent colors. Then the automatic weapons, kitana blades and brass knuckles come out, and the scene is covered in red or green blood. There?s nothing Pleasantville about that.
Still, Sin City looks incredible. High-contrast shots. Masterful use of shadows. Thematic colors. And all of it carried through the entire film. But is it “Best. Movie. Ever.”? No. And before you start saying “Best. DVD. Ever.” Let me tell you it’s not even close.
Remember, graphics whores defend a sexy-looking game even if it’s missing in a few key areas. And Sin City, as gorgeous a film as it is, is lacking in a few key areas. Much ado was made of the film’s violence, so it’s certainly not lacking there. Yet while Sin City is definitely the most violent film I?ve ever seen, I’ll be the first to say it captures perfectly the content of its source material: the violent world of comic books. Sure, Sin City is violent. It’s supposed to be that way.
Where the film and DVD are lacking are the story and the bonus features. The story, in classic Pulp Fiction style, is actually a series of short stories bound together tangentially by a few key locations and characters. It’s not until the last scene, in fact, that you realize just how the stories all come together. Quite literally, this is one DVD that requires a second viewing, just to see how the stories play off one another. In some respects this has a certain “cool factor” to it, but I’m of the opinion that the movie had enough “cool factor” in its art direction, and the story itself should have been a bit less fringe. I?ll take one good story over four just-OK, loosely tied-together ones any day of the week.
As a DVD, though, Sin City creates what in today’s DVD-consuming world is a cardinal sin: there’s only one bonus feature. This bonus feature is a 10-minute featurette with snippets of behind-the-scenes footage and a few short discussions about bringing the film from concept to major motion picture. That’s it. Of all the recent DVD releases, Sin City by far had the most potential for bonus features. How about an expose about the art direction? About the special effects? About filming the movie largely in front of a green screen, a la Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow? Heck, how about going a bit more in-depth with the actors about the things that got them to sign on to such a fringe film (Bruce Willis said he agreed to do it after watching 60 seconds of the proof-of-concept video)? These all would have been fantastic and meaningful bonus features for the Sin City DVD. But none of them are there. That’s really too bad.
But man, Sin City looks good. I’ll admit it, I’ve got certain graphics-whore traits in me, and it’s hard for me to overlook this film’s sexy veneer. If you’re at all like me, appreciating the visually finer things in life, the artistic creativity of Sin City is not to be missed. Sure, the movie might not be your thing, but the pretty pictures will more than justify the rental. If Sin City doesn’t win an Oscar for Art Direction, something is seriously wrong in the Academy. But, if you’re looking for an Oscar-quality plot, you’re best served looking elsewhere. Sin City, like Pulp Fiction and the Kill Bill movies, will certainly have its fans. It’s just that mainstream story aficionados won’t be among them.
— Jonas Allen
