Sin CityDirected by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller

Starring Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, Jessica Alba, Jamie King, Josh Hartnett

More violent than Kill Bill, dark as any film noir and possibly the best comic book adaptation since Spider-Man, Sin City is the most visually stunning film audiences can expect to see this spring.

Based on the graphic novelist Frank Miller's iconic series, Sin City revolves around three anti-heroes fighting for good amid the crime-infested Basin City, where even priests are deadly sinners. John Hartigan (Bruce Willis) is an aging detective with a weak heart trying to save a young girl from a child molester; Marv (Mickey Rourke) is a disfigured ex-con hoping to avenge a slain lover; and Dwight (Clive Owen) protects Basin City's well-armed prostitutes from the mob after the murder of crooked cop Jack Rafferty (Benicio del Toro).

Robert Rodriguez, made famous with his "El Mariachi" trilogy, brought Miller to the production to ensure faithfulness and accuracy to the original graphic novels-a decision that ultimately led to Rodriguez quitting the Directors' Guild of America because the organization only allows one director per film.

The movie is itself a work of pulp fiction: a slew of hard-edged characters in gritty vignettes strung together loosely in a broad narrative. For some of its many stars, Sin City is a departure from the parts for which they are most famous-witness Elijah Wood in a very un-Hobbitlike role.

Rodriguez and Miller combine their talents with near symbiosis, capturing perfectly the beauty and rawness of the graphic novels. Their sweet tooth for stylistic bloodbaths, the female form and an intriguing story of redemption and revenge offers a perfect framework for the green-screen technology that encapsulates the film's comic-book aesthetic.

With uniformly wonderful performances by an ensemble cast set to the stunning backdrop of high-budget filmmaking's future, Sin City's world is dark, depraved and all the more magnificent for it.