The genius of Sin City and its pair of adaptations, co-directed by Rodriguez
and Miller, is that it resembles the nasty criminal underworld of Batman comics
with the hyper-stylization of superheroes. It's a place where a crazed behemoth
like Marv (Mickey Rourke) can get shot a dozen times and come back to pluck a
guy's eye out, grumbling one-liners the whole way. Rodriguez doesn't so much as
recreate the familiar film noir elements; dark shadows, cigarette smoke,
vigilantes and manipulative vixens; he glorifies them while indulging in the
comical violence he's always been such a fan of. In this case, the maddeningly
over-the-top violence more closely resembles that of Rodriguez's Machete
Kills, which couldn't be less of a film noir than Spy Kids was. 
Rodriguez's computer generated backgrounds, which blew our minds nine years
ago, no longer have that element of surprise but they are still breathtaking to
behold. Shattered glass and spraying blood glisten in the eye-popping starkness
of this black and white world, occasionally lit up by flashes of color. Usually
these brief moments of vibrancy are reserved for the ladies, who are either arm
candy or scheming she-devils. Like the first film, a series of
loosely-connected short stories ripped from the comics comprise the bulk of the
material, with a couple of new tales that introduce a new character and expand
on another. The crisscrossing chronology allows for some dead characters to be
seen once again, like Marv and his demented search for answers in "Just Another
Saturday Night". In that one, Marv, whose head has never been screwed on
too tight, cracks heads while trying to figure out why he killed a bunch of
guys. A thread from the first film is followed-up on in "Nancy's Last
Dance", in which the saintly (for Sin City anyway) strip club dancer Nancy
Callahan (Jessica Alba) goes nuts after the death of her savior, John Hartigan
(Bruce Willis), and seeks revenge on the politically-connected Roark clan of
psychos. 
Because so much of Sin City: A Dame to Kill For remains unchanged
from before, both in terms of tone and visual flourish, it's the new additions
to the cast who are the greatest blast to spend time with. The centerpiece
story “A Dame to Kill For" features the dangerously gorgeous Eva Green in
various states of undress. No other actress so perfectly embodies the classic
femme fatale as Green, who plays Ava Lord in a twisted tale that explains how
street hero Dwight (now played by Josh Brolin) came to need that new face he
had in the first film. Dwight's always had a soft spot for the ladies and Lord
exploits that by calling on him for help against the torturous Manute (Dennis
Haysbert) and her abusive billionaire husband. She and Dwight share a troubled
romantic past and he can't resist her cries for help or her sexual advances. Of
course she's not being totally honest about her situation, and when Dwight
enlists Marv (who appears in practically every story) to take down Lord once
and for all its bloody and kinky in all the ways we love about Sin City. Green
slinks and slithers like a snake with her piercing eyes and Rodriguez lavishes
us with every gratuitous shot of her shimmering body. He's as smitten with her
as the many men who fall under Lord's spell, which includes Christopher Meloni
as a married cop who haplessly carries out her orders. She's everything the
title suggests and more.
The best of the fresh material is Joseph Gordon-Levitt's "The Long Bad
Night", in which the perfectly-suited actor plays Johnny, a cardsharp
riding a hot streak and decides to see how far he can take it. With a hot dame
(Julia Garner) by his side he decides to take on Sin City's most heinous
villain, Senator Roarke (Powers Boothe) in a poker match and wins handily.
Winning may have its privileges but not in Sin City, and Roarke makes Johnny's
life a gruesome waking nightmare. 
Sadly we don't get to see nearly enough of Rosario Dawson as Gale, leader of
the Old Town prostitutes, while brief cameos by Ray Liotta, Jeremy Piven, and
Stacy Keach mostly serve as "ah ha" moments rather than anything
memorable. With all the CGI violence and sexy babes this is Rodriguez right in
his element, but there's never any attempt to improve on what came before. Sin
City was such a game-changer that it's disappointing Rodriguez doesn't try to
break new ground with Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. He gives fans all
the blood and guts they can handle and absolutely nothing more.
Rating: 3 out of 5
