Bright Lights, Shit City. Sin City 2: A Dame To Kill For.

There are eight million stories in the city....

Unfortunately 'Sin City 2' seems to know only two. One is about the angel/whore who manipulates broken men to kill for her to suit her own ends. The other one is about a broken man seeking revenge or seeking respect who gets out of his depth. That's it. That's all you're getting for your money in Sin City no matter what you might hear about four or five plot lines crossing over with each other. None of the stories are complex, interesting or surprising.

When 'Sin City' came out I was conflicted. The adult in me hated it as a nasty, misogynistic, piss poor imitation of film noir. But the adolescent in me loved it as a thrilling, stylish slice of hardboiled entertainment.

With 'Sin City 2' the adult in me hated it as a misogynistic, unimaginative, piss poor imitation of 'Sin City' whilst the adolescent in me hated it as a boring, unexciting let down. In short your enjoyment of this will primarily depend on how much you enjoying seeing Eva Green's tits, or her CGI manipulated tits in black and white or how much you enjoy seeing Jessica Alba grinding sexlessly away as an erotic dancer with a gun. There's nothing else going on to hold your interest.

The original 'Sin City' at the very least had a desire to push boundaries for on-screen violence as a raison d'etre. It may not have been commendable but it was an end unto itself. There's nothing here as disturbing as Elijah Wood's silent demise at the hands of Marv in the first film. There's nothing as fucked up as the 'That Yellow Bastard' plot-line. The sequel feels reigned in, pointless and unnecessary. Even Eva Green's gratuitous nudity and sex scenes seem a watered down facsimile of her scenes in the similarly minded '300: Rise Of An Empire'.

I like Robert Rodriguez but this is the worst thing he's ever done. Come on man - you're better than this. First time out, you just knew he was enthused with a passion for telling stories in a striking way via technology, but this doesn't build on the first film visually at all. I saw it in 3D but no amount of rain or snow or smoke billowing about in every scene can disguise the fact that there is nothing new to the mix here. The aesthetic wears thin really quickly. If he wanted to make a sequel he should have done it years ago. The fire has gone for this project. Maybe that's what happens if you hang around Frank Miller too long; the 'intelligence' behind '300' and an artist in creative free fall for the past 25 years.

It's not film noir. It's film shit.