- Sin City: A Dame To Kill For failed to live up to the success of its predecessor, with lackluster stories and characters that fell short of expectations.
- Eva Green shines as the conniving femme fatale Ava in the sequel, but even her performance couldn’t save the film from being a disappointment to critics and fans alike.
- Despite the anticipation for a sequel to the original Sin City, A Dame To Kill For’s underperformance at the box office ultimately led to the cancellation of plans for a third installment.
In 2005, Sin Cityredefined what a comic book adaptation could be. The stylish film brought to life Frank Miller’s dark, noir comic about a city overrun by corruption and crime. Shot in black and white, with the occasional splash of color, it was a star-studded anthology met with instant demand for a sequel. Roberto Rodriguez and Frank Miller talked about going back to Basin City for years, until finally, in 2014, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For hit theaters to a tepid,, resounding, “meh.” Turns out, the best stories from the comic were adapted for the first film, leaving the second movie to be filled with B-tier stories that not even Eva Green could save.
Return To Basin City
As the titular “Dame to kill for,” Ava, <a href="https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/horror/best-gothic-series.html” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>Eva Green plays her as equal parts conniving, sexy, and dangerous, she’s the perfect noir femme fatale. Her target this time is Dwight, played in the first film by Clive Owen but played here by Josh Brolin. By reigniting their old relationship, Ava gets Dwight to kill her abusive husband. It kicks off a series of betrayals and murders that leaves no part of the city untouched.
The other stories include Jason Gordon-Levitt as the gambler Johnny, who gets in over his head with Senator Roark (a returning Powers Boothe). After winning too much at poker, Johnny gets his hands broken, he’s shot, and his good luck charm, Marcie (a pre-Ozark Julia Garner), is chopped into little pieces. It flows into the last story of Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, which reunites Marv (Mickey Rourke) with Nancy (Jessica Alba), as she’s out to kill Rourke for what he did to Hartigan (Bruce Willis) in the first movie.
Sin Cityplayed with the timeline and Sin City: A Dame To Kill For does the same, leaving one story incomplete to tell a completely different one, before lazily flowing back to finish what it started in the first half. The difference is that the characters this time aren’t nearly as compelling, and the hard-boiled noir voiceover goes to the point of parody. For example, Brolin has to say the line, “like an atom bomb between my legs” right before he’s kicked in the junk. What was new and interesting in 2005, didn’t work in 2014.
The Best Stories Were Already Told
Sin City: A Dame to Kill Forwas a surprise flop in theaters, bringing in only $39 million against a budget of $65 million. The underperformance killed plans for a third film featuring Johnny Depp. Critics and fans of the comics were disappointed in the film, though they all agree that Eva Green is the best part of another lackluster sequel, this was the same year as 300: Rise of an Empire, and Jessica Alba was right behind her.
A decade later, and removed from the years of sequel rumors, Sin City: A Dame to Kill Foris still, somehow, a boring movie filled with sex and violence. The excitement and thrill of the first film is gone, the new characters (except Ava) can’t match up to the original lineup, As a free streaming movie, you can do a lot worse, but you might be better off watching the original again.
Sin City: A Dame To Kill For is streaming on Pluto TV, Tubi, Fandango, and Plex.
Sin City is available on Pluto TV.
