If you read my earlier post, you'll know my imagination was piqued by Frank Miller's Sin City, which goes into wide release today.

All I can say is, believe the hype; it's a visually dazzling film that will shift how movies are made and look. But it isn't without some flaws in the storytelling department.

First a little bit about the film (see its website to get its visual flavour; for a bit on the making of see my earlier blog posting):

Sin City -- as envisioned by its graphic novelist creator, Frank Miller -- is a world of perpetual darkness, a corrupt metropolis where politicians' sons and priests' boy toys can rape and kill with impunity, secure in the knowledge that if they are punished, the whole slimy underbelly of what passes for Sin City's society will be cut open.

There are a few good, flawed men -- some cops, some convicts -- but all are killers. Actually, pretty much everyone in the film is a killer of some sort. :)

Like Pulp Fiction, the 1990s masterpice directed by Quentin Tarantino (who does a guest director spot here  for his pal and protege Robert Rodriguez), the narrative consists of three interlocking plot lines. But unlike Pulp Fiction, these three are somewhat the same.

John Hartigan, a world-weary cop due to retire (played by Bruce Willis -- who played a world-weary boxer in what 1990s movie? :^) ), risks his life to save an 11-year-old girl from a sexual predator.

Marv, a massive, ugly thug (played by Mickey Rourke) sets out to avenge the murder of Goldie, the gorgeous hooker who treated him to a night of memorable sex -- but more importantly, was nice to him.Oh yeah: He was framed for her murder (Goldie had worked the clergy, and knew damaging things about important people).

And Dwight, an ex-con who did time for murder, protects his casual beer-slinging girlfriend Shellie (Brittany Murphy, who was Rourke's girlfriend in what recent meth-fueled movie, folks?) and all the good-bad girls in Old Town by prowling after the abusive, woman-hating Jack Rafferty (Benicio del Toro). But his real passion is for Gail (Rosario Dawson), queen bee of the Old Town bad girls -- someone he loves but knows he can never have.

Some of the noirish dialogue is great. In the opening scene, a young man walks towards a gorgeous young woman, lounging on a balcony in a shimmering crimson dress, rendered all the more striking by the black, white and gray cityscape.

"She looked as fragile as the last leaf on a dying tree," was the Narrator's line (as I remember it; didn't take notes, was there as a civilian).

But as the man and woman appear to fall instantly in love, the muffled sound of a silenced bullet rings out. Her assassin, who professed such love and tenderness for her, holds her dead body.

Very striking, very touching -- and unfortunately, very unexplained by the rest of the movie, although some writers have suggested it sets the scene.

Both violence and desire are indeed never far apart in this film, and are in fact intertwined at some points.

Of the two, the violence is the most creatively and brutally stylized.

In his showdown with the predator early in the movie (I think Rodriguez may have seen Dirty Harry again before he started shooting the movie), Hartigan shoots his foe in both the groin and his gun hand (I believe there was also a head wound in there).

The brutality of it had the audience gasping.

The blood in those scenes is white, although visually, it is no less jarring. In others, you see a splash of red -- even bright mustard yellow.

When preparing to do battle with silent, deadly Harry Potter-looking Kevin (Elijah Wood ?!?!), the serial killer and cannibal who has supped (so to speak) with Sin City's Cardinal Roark, Marv stocks up with rubber tubing, razor wire, hockey gloves, a gasoline can and a hatchet.

I suspect the Pulp Fiction scene -- where Bruce Willis's character Butch was checking out weapons before rescuing Marcellus Wallace from the chopper-riding hillbilly rapists --figured into the directors' thinking.

But having Kevin's limbs lopped off, and having him sit there with an eerie smile and cracked glasses before his wolf dog shows up to start snacking on him, raises the bar.

Other than that, bombs, martial arts, swordplay, mordant humour -- all the stuff you'd expect from the  genre are there in spades!

While I give it full marks for visual stylishness and inventiveness and bringing true cinematic life to a graphic novel, there are a few narrative and pacing issues that prevent it from getting the coveted "masterpiece" designation.

Actually, if it were an ordinary-looking film, I'd bump it down to a six out of 10.

Despite that, I think on its visual strength, Sin City will be considered a landmark film.

If you see it, let me know what you think.