In the nerdy underbelly of American pop culture, there is a war being waged over various forms of fringe entertainment.

Animated action cartoons, comic books and video games are all trying to stage uprisings from their current positions as the havens of nerds and freaks and break into the entertainment mainstream. For every step towards the center in each of these genres, there are several painful missteps that cost them a small fragment of legitimacy.

Comic books in particular are the subject of contentious debate. On one hand, the solid stand-by's, the comic books read by almost every fledgling adolescent have made it. Spiderman, Superman, Batman and the X-Men have all more or less (repeat: more or less) successfully made it to the silver screen. Mainstream entertainment and the figureheads of the comic book industry have over looked the truly artistic comics, titles like "Maus," "Red Star," "The Watchmen" and "Powers."

Then along came Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. If their new movie "Sin City" is taken into the mainstream, the serious comic books may have finally arrived.

"City" does what very few comic book movies manage to do. It captures the gritty essence of its source material without sacrificing the overall entertainment value, without seeming to condescend to the non-fans in the audience.

The shadowy characters of "Sin City" inhabit a world that Rodriguez and Miller painted in a stark black and white, interspersed with seemingly random elements of color. "Sin City" is an anonymous urban fantasyland, leeching elements from the 1940's, '50's and the modern day to form a fantastic metropolitan landscape. The feeling of a sinister underworld is enhanced by the absence of color except in strategic places (A woman's dress and eyes are in color, her skin and hair in black and white).

The main characters are creatures of the fringe; the grizzled cop Hartigan (Bruce Willis) struggles to protect the virginity of a 12-year-old girl from a serial killer, while Marv (Mickey Rourke) rampages against cops, hit men and any other living thing that stands between him and the killer of his one night stand Goldie (Jaime King). Dwight (Clive Owen) converses with a dead body and struggles to maintain the delicate balance between the corrupt city cops, an independent state run by hookers and the mob. These are plots that great movies are made of.

These are also the actors that make up great casts. Rourke and Owen in particular give spectacular performances. Rourke's Marv is what so many movies lack; an unbridled psychopath that an audience can easily relate to. Owen's Dwight spouts great lines that would seem hackneyed or ridiculous coming from any other character ("I'm Shellie's new boyfriend and I'm out of my mind," said while holding a razor to the face of Benicio Del Toro's Frank Rafferty). Even Willis' stoic Hartigan gets off one or two memorable lines.

Michael Madsen, who almost slaughters his rendition of Hartigan's partner Bob in the few scenes that the two share, gives the most awkward performance.

After a shaky, flash-and-pop-heavy outing in "Once Upon A Time In Mexico," Rodriguez's editing and directing are back, except for a few patchy sequences that have minimal impact on the films overall feel.

All in all, "Sin City" is a lot like Tim Burton's incarnation of Batman. It carries the perfect tone and is on track to rival "Batman Begins," Christopher Nolan's take on the "Batman Year One" comic series for the heavyweight comic book movie title come June.

Grade AB

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on March 31 2005.,”Brian O'Connor”

“