I've heard the reviews of Sin City: A Dame to Kill For being less than enthusiastic, so my expectations were fairly low going into this. Now Dame isn't a bad movie, but it's not that great either and somewhat of a forgettable film once the credits roll. I was expecting it to look exactly the same as the first one as well as how the story unfolds, which I didn't have a problem with. But what I do have a problem with is Jessica Alba, once again refusing to stay true to the source material of the book. The graphic novel is loaded with sex and violence and yet while watching this sequel, especially any scenes invovling Abla, it all felt very neutered.  A stripper that STILL refuses to take her clothes off? Sigh.

The movie actually felt like two different films in one. On the flip-side of what Alba does (or more to the point....doesn't), watching Eva Green do her thing felt more sincere in portraying Mrs. Lord. This has nothing to do with seeing boobies if you will, but everything to do with her actually staying true to her character which makes Alba's scenes look all the more ridiculous by comparison. Not much else to really say about the flick other than this being a Rent for die-hard fans of the book. Just know going into this that you're getting a watered down version for half of the movie and the other half is very repetitive throughout.

(repost from the Watching thread, now that we've all seen the movie)

Agreed.  Here are the big thoughts I had.

* That doctor that JGL goes too!  Oh how I wish he wasn't in the opening credits, cause it would have been such a great surprise!

* Alexa Vega as another non-stripping stripper.  Only four seconds, but still...
The whole non-stripping stripper thing REALLY stood out more in this one since Eva Green was pretty much naked in the entire flick.  It had this effect of making the saloon feel more like a TGI Fridays than a seedy, lurid joint where all the worst elements of the city collide.

* Oh how I wish that Clive Owen had been able to show up, how great would that have been.

* Juno Temple and Ray Liotta.  I liked seeing them act together.

* Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller recreating a scene from the first flick, I thought that was a cute touch.

* There was so much violence and it was all so similar, it became pointless.  There's only so many heads that can be cut off or eyes being shot out before you stop caring.  I was really annoyed by how many people died, not because I have an issue with violence or anything like that, but because it made everything seem pointless since everyone freakin' DIED.  Everyone dies, so what do I care?  AND the "good guys" can kill without stakes, it felt like there were no stakes to anything.  And the way the characters were walking into dangerous situations without a care, it didn't feel real.  I know the stories were about the ONE person who could do that and why, but when you have so many characters who CAN do that, it just makes the place feel like a video game.

* Every woman is a **** or a stripper, and every guy is a crooked cop, a mobster, or an assh*le.  A premise like that should invite all kinds of people, different types, so we can see how it f*cks them up, makes them compromise themselves, sullies their souls, etc.  The potential of this kind of story engine is undercut when the characters are all identical.  The closest we got to something like that was JGL.

* There were so many moments watching the movie where it felt like I was watching one of those old full motion video games, you could see where the characters weren't attached to the floor, or where the artistic style undercut the reality of the settings ("we're not in a mansion, because the windows are all white even though it's night).  Even though the effects have gotten much better than the first flick, it's still not the same as being in actual, interesting locations.

* I wonder how many people noticed Lady Gaga as the diner waitress.
Which also makes me wonder why Danny Trejo hasn't been in any of these movies.

and another thought:

how great would it be if we didn't know that Christopher Lloyd was in the flick?  The surprise was already ruined for me in another movie (Mac knows what I'm talking about, not sure if Chip does so I won't say).