To call Sin City noir is to misunderstand the genre, as perhaps Miller does. Each story ends pretty simply-in brutal fighting and murder-and lacks genuine intrigue or ambiguity.

The duration between the first film and its sequel doesn't fully explain the new film's flaws, it's quite instructive when examining the reactions to them.

There's a bleak beauty to all of this, but also there's a reliance on stereotypes, male and female, that, while they come directly from the source material, are starting to become irritating.

Like '300: Rise of an Empire' before it, 'Sin City: A Dame to Kill For' is just another chance for Frank Miller to show off how poor he is at extending franchises.