Sin City

So finally, after many many months, I decide to watch the infamous Sin City. The reason I hadn't watched it earlier is because the whole thing sounded terribly uninteresting. Not to mention the probably irritating black-white photography. The reason I watched the movie is because I decided to watch at least one movie in one day, and have succeeded for more than ten days. During that time, I watched literally everything in my movie empire that was worth watching (and also a few things that weren't). So, the only thing left to watch was Sin City.
And I have to say - the movie was a pleasant surprise. It was dynamic, interesting, violent and all that stuff and the black-white-with-occasional-colour photography really worked. It was great how they designed all the scenes to be almost identical replicas of the scenes from the comic book (of course, I haven't read the comic, this brilliant comment owes (sp?) its existence to the Behind The Camera DVD feature). Of course, absolutely the best part of the movie is when Carla Gugino gets out of the bed and holds a gun. This scene alone made the movie worth watching. Sadly, this leads us to the sad part of the story, which we shall call: Why Robert Rodriguez Smells.
Here's why - one of the main characters in the movie is Nancy. She's a stripper. Most people (Robert Rodriguez excluded) know that what strippers do is - stripping. I.E., taking their clothes off. He wisely hired Jessica Alba for the part, but what happened was that she refused to do any nudity. Oh, no! Another Julia Roberts in sight! And what did Robert do? NOTHING! He thought it wasn't important to the movie and just let her dance wearing clothes (!!) EXCUSE ME??? NOT IMPORTANT??? Nudity NOT IMPORTANT in a movie called SIN City? As we all know, nudity is one of the greatest sins, so excluding Jessica Alba nude scene delivered an almost lethal blow to the movie's credibility. That Mexican bastard, he should have fired that bimbo (who's going to get naked very soon, anyway) and give the role to... I don't know, Brittany Murphy. Yes, I know she already was in the movie, but she also played a non-nude role. Terrible.
Another terrible decision is in the scene where Nick Stahl is torturing the aforementioned Alba. It was originally designed to be extremely violent, but Rodriguez toned it down with the explanation that "it crossed the boundaries of good taste". Heard that? GOOD TASTE. In a movie where Mickey Rourke cuts Elijah Wood's legs and lets his dog eat him, where Bruce Willis beats Nick Stahl's head to a pulp and so on. Good taste. Robert Rodriguez, you suck.
Another thing that sucked in this movie was the decision that bloody scenes be coloured white. So, when someone cuts someone's arm off, it looks like the arm is ejaculating rather than bleeding. But I guess it was that way in the comic, so they had to leave it, right? WRONG!!! Nancy was naked in the comic, and Brittany Murphy's character showed pretty much, but no, that WASN'T IMPORTANT! And the torturing scene wasn't important. But hey, white blood - THAT'S important.
And one final criticism, that is related to the making of the film, rather than film itself: You know how Robert Rodriguez always has his guitar with him when he shoots movies? Well, not this time. Not a sign of a guitar! I found that terribly strange and discouraging.
Having said all that, the movie actually kicks ass. The third third is the best, with fine interaction between Jessica Alba and Bruce Willis, not to mention that ending ruled. I can't wait to see the sequel, and maybe even read the comic if I ever have a chance.
By the way, don't get too attached to characters in this movie. Seems like Frank Miller is one dirty rotten sadist, introducing tons of characters just to kill them fifteen minutes later.