Top Films of '05: #7 Sin City

Maybe not as great as I'd hoped, Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller (oh, and Quentin Tarantino) nevertheless serve up a spectacular visual and technical feat, while capturing the true spirit of Miller's graphic novels. While most "comic book" flicks try to transform the characters into living, breathing creatures of cinema, Rodriguez & Co. opt to simply make the 2-D world move. The result is a dizzying world of subtle texture and stunning visuals. All of the characters ahere to Miller's strict archetypes (the whole point of comic books, right?), and the interlocking stories hit all the right notes.

By abandoning the pretense of conventional film and embracing a nearly completely new way of making movies, Rodriguez and Miller successfully redefined the "comic book" film genre and laid the groundwork for an exciting franchise.

(It merits mentioning that Rodriguez carries his visionary insanity to DVD with the just-released "Extended & Recut" DVD edition, which features the four stories cut as single films as well as a full "green screen" edit with just the actors - plus the original theatrical cut with multiple commentaries.)