[Updates below.]

Good flick. I haven't read or looked at any of Frank Miller's original story or art, so I came into the film a blind newbie devoid of context and expectation. Well, besides that which was hyped through advertisements...

Despite the regular flashes of color we get to see on those ads, they appear rarely. Black and white dominates. The only obvious CG was in the vehicle animation; the backgrounds were nearly flawless. By that I mean they did not distract from the foreground when one's attention should have been there and they added stark contrast to the whole frame when one's eyes should have scanned the entire moment. Visuals: 90 of 100

The music was not noteworthy and didn't particularly grab me in any direction. There were times when it was just a bit too obviously hack for me. In my universe, a film that wants to be a serious addition to a genre's catalogue should avoid cribbing so much from the past that you think, and since the music is doing THIS, we can expect...THAT. Still, nothing outright objectionable. FX were top-notch. Sounds: 80 of 100

The story will require another viewing for me to hammer down fully. It is broken into three broad sections that are not chronologically correct. My favorite was Marv's. Mickey Rourke did a fantastic job with this character and therefore made swallowing his superhuman strength and tenacity much easier. He, out of all the primary players, received the most cheers and support from the audience. Hartigan (Bruce Willis) was exactly what you'd expect him to be but with all the stubbornness that overflowed from Marv. Unfortunately, it also means Bruce is willingly cementing his Die Hard/Pulp Fiction persona almost to the point of no return. Clive Owen played Dwight and I'm still wondering what his deal was. He felt out of place. Benicio Del Toro's Jackie Boy was appropriately menacing and as ugly externally as internally. There were a few camera angles that immediately sparked the idea of him starring in The Crow as a very credible lead. I was disappointed in Michael Madsen's sidekick Bob to Hartigan. Very flat delivery coupled with an almost bored body language. Perhaps that was part of the character context I miss by not being familiar with the work. My friends and I are still mystified with Kevin (Elijah Wood). He was certainly more entertaining than Yellow Bastard (Nick Stahl).

Jessica Alba was hot, of course, as dancer/stripper Nancy. However, if you're going to the theater to see where the nudity is, it isn't with her. Or Rosario Dawson's (Gail was a tough S&M-ish bitch, but didn't go further than that). Or Brittany Murphy's timid waitress Shellie. There were boobs, but the only ones I can put a name to right now belong to Jaime King's Goldie. All of the above put in acceptable performances, though I thought we saw a bit too much of Dawson's Thug Life meets Evil Betty Page on a Militia Trip impression. Devon Aoki played Miho and I think one of my best friends fell in love with her. She's a nasty one. All in all, though the females played important roles, they were primarily motivating roles for the male characters.

But, yes, the story. I won't post spoilers. It is quite violent. No shortage of torture (Hartigan rips off someone's entire package of mail genitalia, for example). This is a movie about extremes, and it is very questionable whether the "good" extreme ever peeked it's face out. The three (four, if you count the Josh Hartnett sequences at the beginning and end) plotlines were interwoven enough that I'll benefit from a second viewing, which may be tonight. There was the occasional cheesecracker line that any 14 year old might have written, but it's more often the case than not that the dialogue was beautifully descriptive and energetic. Marv had the best lines and the best delivery. Plot: 85 out of 100, and probably higher once I see it again.

If I do end up watching it tonight, I'll post my recollections and observations.

UPDATED 4/6/2005 8:55am
Yep, another viewing cleared up some of my misconceptions and filled in a few gaps. I'd rate the plot higher at 90. I saw it a second time with one of my good friends who is also a comic book fan and has read two of the graphic novels from the series. He was quite adamant that there were many scenes matching the art frame-by-frame and very much enjoyed their portrayal onscreen.

Shellie's primary role came during the Jackie-Boy/Dwight apartment scene and her over the top whispery New Yorker-ish accent helped cement the comic book overtones I had noticed elsewhere but didn't integrate. Perhaps what I thought was Bob's bad acting that I mentioned above is better viewed from this light. Ditto for Hartigan, although he didn't cliche himself throughout the movie as badly as Bob did at the beginning. Given the dramatic views, multiple monologues, and other devices it should have come to me sooner.

*SPOILERS BELOW*

Some questions:

• Why didn't Kevin attack Hartigan when Hartigan trespassed onto the Farm's grounds to kill Yellow Bastard? Kevin would have stomped the old man into the dirt. Was there an unmentioned rivalry between Yellow Bastard and Kevin in the Rourke family?
• Who was the woman in the red dress The Man killed at the beginning and what was her connection to the story? Did she pay for an unknown hitman to kill her so that she wouldn't know when it was coming?
• Was Dwight hallucinating during the scene when he was driving the bodies to the tar pits and Jackie-Boy talked to him? If so, was he still hallucinating during the scene when he tricks the Mob gang into the narrow alley to get slaughtered by the Old Town women? Jackie-Boy's eyes were moving around to look.
• Why did Bob shoot Hartigan on the dock? Was Bob under pressure from Senator Rourke to stop Hartigan before he captured Rourke's son?
• Can simple incompetence explain why Rourke would send just two low-class goons after Marv to capture him at the strip joint?