Sin City: A Dame to Kill For has performed disastrously at the box-office this weekend. So we will call this an early Blu-Ray/DVD review.

Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez return to the film world that they created based on Miller’s graphic novels, Sin City. When the first film was released in 2005, the visual effects were mesmerizing and unlike anything that had been seen before. It was a very adult look at a cartoon world, straight out of film noir nightmares. It’s tone was very familiar, yet it was totally original and brash. Moviegoers were fascinated by its visuals and big-name stars. It showed at the box-office and it went on to be a cult hit.

In the newest installment, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Rodriguez and Miller film a series of vignettes that loosely tie into each other and the previous films. Make sure that you view the original, because there are arbitrary jumps in time. Some of the film is a prequel, other parts serve as a sequel. However, the directors depend on your knowledge of the previous film to work out the chronology. Which is a lot to ask when the last film came out almost ten years ago.

Mickey Rourke’s return as Marv has to be one of the highlights of the film. However, his presence simply isn’t earned. This is not due to Rourke’s performance but the positions the writers put him in feel forced. It really feels as if the creators knew he was the best thing about the film, so they had to weave him into the story whenever they could. In fact, he essentially is the connective tissue between the various tales of the city, despite being merely a low-level thug.

Eva Green does an admirable job hamming it up in true 1940’s noir fashion as the femme fatale, while being staying fashionably undressed for the entire movie. That notion actually speaks to the level of gratuitous violence in the film in general, it is so prevalent and in your face, that it looses its impact after a brief period. There really is nothing deeper being said about society or any subtext. It makes the flashy visuals feel very empty and hollow. There is A Clockwork Orange level of ultra-violence, however it is meaningless since it isn’t making any kind of statement, which makes the film seem almost mean-spirited.

Techniques and innovations that worked in the previous installment are misused this go around. Something as simple as the film noir voiceover is overused to the point that characters are literally saying everything that is happening on the screen. At first it settles you into the atmosphere, however it quickly becomes comical when done from so many viewpoints and so literally. This is a prime example of a lack of restraint and a writer, Miller, too attached to his own material to let a scene play out the way it naturally should, with actions and intent.

The various chapters seem more disjointed than ever before and the film really feels like a series of webisodes, as opposed to a unified film. When the movie feels like it should be coming to an end, we are “treated” to the final segment featuring Jessica Alba that feels bloated and drawn out. Alba’s performance is stilted and the film really comes to grinding halt as the motivations, and story overall, are creepy and hard to truly justify.

While Brolin, Gordon-Levitt and Green do the most they can with shoddy writing and dialogue, the film ultimately can’t hold up to the poor direction. This is a movie and Blu-ray review after all, so try and view this film in 3D. As the visuals are truly the standout feature of this film. There are a few moments that are really awe inspiring, but it doesn’t even come close to saving the rest of the morbid piece.

If Miller and Rodriguez had something new to say or to add to the franchise after nine years it would have given the sequel some semblance of necessity. It is more of the first, just delivered in an extremely sloppy manner and audiences deserve better than that. One of the worst crimes that the film commits, is that it leaves the viewer feeling that they haven’t seen a complete story. Sin City could work as a webisode series, however as a feature film franchise it has run out of gas. And that is nothing to kill for…

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