The Sin City movie sequel, subtitled A Dame to Kill For, finally arrives in theaters this summer - but is it too late? That's the question on most everyone's mind, given the sheer amount of time passed - in combination with how drastically the comic book film landscape has changed - since nine years ago, when Robert Rodriguez teamed up with Frank Miller to bring the latter's violent, stylized neo-Noir comic book property to the big screen. Regardless, this second Sin City installment still comes bearing a cast of big-name stars, many of whom are featured front and center in a new batch of character posters released for the film.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For adapts a couple of the Sin City comic stories that didn't make the cut in the first movie, but also features brand-new script material penned by Miller. The narrative threads follow Marv (Mickey Rourke) on the same night that Hartigan (Bruce Willis) died; Dwight (Josh Brolin), during the events that resulted in him getting a new face (that of Clive Owen's); Nancy (Jessica Alba), in the aftermath of Hartigan's sacrificial suicide; and the newcomer Johnny (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a fellow who experiences the bad nights to end all bad nights, after crossing the wrong person in Basin City. Oh yes, and Eva Green (300: Rise of an Empire, Penny Dreadful) is starring as the eponymous femme fatale.

Most of the aforementioned folk have received their own shiny one-sheets, which include taglines for their characters - designed to resemble comic book dialogue boxes from Miller's source material, just like in the posters released for the first Sin City nearly a decade ago. Rosario Dawson (reprising tough-as-nails prostitute Gail) is also featured in this batch of one-sheets, which you can peruse through below:

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Sin City 2 Poster - Jessica Alba

Sin City 2 Poster - Mickey Rourke

Sin City 2 Poster - Rosario Dawson

Sin City 2 Poster - Josh Brolin

Sin City 2 Poster - Joseph Gordon-Levitt

In essence, every one of the individual central plot threads in the first Sin City movie used the same basic template: morally-ambiguous male protagonist seeks redemption, in some part motivated by his impassioned love for a woman. However, it sounds as though A Dame to Kill For will be mixing things up a little bit more - especially with the story threads involving Levitt and Alba's characters. During an interview with EW, Alba also indicated that Nancy will be noticeably evolved in the film, compared to the version of her that was featured in the first Sin City installment:

“She was more naive in the first film. Ignorance was bliss. In this one there’s no bliss and no ignorance. I wanted her to transition from being a victim to being someone who’s in control of her own story."

Jessica Alba in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
Nancy (Jessica Alba) in 'Sin City: A Dame to Kill For'

According to Alba, Nancy's transformation between films is somewhat reflective of her own experience working in Hollwood, as she admitted during the EW interview that "I was such a deer in the headlights when I did the first ['Sin City']," before she went on to add that "I have a fearlessness now that I didn’t before." While the quality (or, rather, lack thereof) of Rodriguez and Miller's recent output provides fair reason to be wary of their reunion for Sin City 2, Alba's comments are nonetheless encouraging to hear. Take them as you will, of course.

__________________________________________________

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For opens in U.S. theaters on August 22nd, 2014.

Source: EW