Frank Miller's 300 (2007)

[trekgeezer]

I went to see it today and I was quite impressed.  I'll tell you one thing, never have I seen so many ripped abs in my life.

This kind of film making may not be for everyone, it is highly stylized and makes a lot of use of the Matrix style slow motion in the fight scenes. The movie is very bloody with several limb amputations and beheadings. Almost  every big battle ends with dripping blood being shaken off the Spartans spears.

Gerard Butler does a great job as Leonidas. We see him developed from a boy at home with his parents until age seven when he is taken for his military training, then as a young man going through his rite of passage to manhood. 

There is a lot of testorone driven dialogue throughout as you would expect. The movie is also narrated throughout by David Wenham (Farimir from LOTR), who is dispatched before the final battle of the 300 to tell their story so that it may  inspire the rest of Greece to rise up against the Persians.


My favorite line in the movie has to be from the narration, "...quite clumsy beasts and the piles of dead Persians were slippery"

[Scott]

Trek Geezer, my daughter saw 300 yesterday after the first day of an archery tournament in Harrison, Virginia which she was competing and she called and told me about the film, so today I took my wife to the 1pm showing here in New Jersey. It's a must see film for 2007 and my wife loved it except some of the excessive blood and gore. That's three  from us folks here in New Jersey.

My wife made positive comments on the Spartan "abs" and music. 

[BeyondTheGrave]

I did a review in my Movie Wastland thread http://www.badmovies.org/forum/index.php/topic,112951.msg134029.html#msg134029

Needless to say I liked it. 

[Andrew]

Between "Gates of Fire" and some other studies of the battle, I have had high hopes for this movie and it sounds like the film is a good one.  I am hoping to see it soon.  Heroics on a scale rarely seen in human history from one of the greatest warrior cultures ever to exist.  History Channel also had an interesting documentary about the battle the other day.

[Fausto]

Saw it on friday, awesome movie, great story, great acting, great everything....If Miller is himself involved, you can be sure its being done with the upmost respect to the original material, as he wouldnt have it any other way. A word of caution...I saw it in one of those cramped f-ing' stadium seating theatres, and by the end my legs and knees felt like they were ready to snap off.

[Pilgermann]

I saw it in the IMAX format Saturday night and I wasn't exactly exactly thrilled with it.  The dialogue is often lame, mostly poor or uninspired acting (Lena Headey sucks in this like she did in Brothers Grimm), there's way too much slow motion, the scene with the dancing Oracle was idiotic (slo-mo!), the music was pretty generic, the blood seems to evaporate, and it had sort of a cobbled together structure. 

Despite my complaints I think it's still worth watching.  The fights are well staged and exciting, the evaporating blood at least looks pretty neat when it's spraying out, and there're some wonderful visuals like the first shot of Xerxes on his throne that's carried by his slaves.  Try to see it in digital or IMAX if you have the opportunity.

Did anyone else think that when anyone said the name Daxos that they were saying "duck sauce"?

[Joe the Destroyer]

I also saw it on Friday.  To paraphrase my MySpace mini review:

"It was an over-stylized and desensitzing violencefest.  It other words, it has my complete approval!"

 

I actually enjoyed it a little more than Sin City.

[Torgo]

**1/2 out of ****.

I really, really wanted to like this movie a great deal being a huge Frank Miller fan and all.

But I REALLY got annoyed by the way the battle scenes were shot.  Lots of slo-mo and then the action speeds up really fast and then back to slo-mo.

In fact, I don't think that there was one single shot in any of the battle scenes/action that was shown at regular speed.

[Jim H]

Do they completely ignore the 700 Thespians like most versions of the Battle of Thermopylae do?

I haven't read the entire book (I've skimmed through it at the book store) and I don't recall seeing them mentioned.

I'll be seeing it tomorrow myself.  Don't have high expectations, but I expect to be entertained.

[akiratubo]

I think I'll wait for the video on this one.  I don't like what I've seen in trailers at all.

[Scott]

Turgo, they do mention the Thespians and they are even involved with one of the battles.

[Pilgermann]

Oh yeah, what was up with the goat-headed fellow in Xerxes' Love Shack?  It was pretty funny.

[Shadow]

From Sci Fi Wire:

Zack Snyder's hit 300, about the Greco-Persian Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C., has drawn the wrath of Iranians for showing their ancestors as bloodthirsty "savages," the Agence France-Presse news service reported. (The Persian Empire evolved into what is now modern-day Iran.)

Iranian press, officials and bloggers have united in denouncing the film as another example of "psychological warfare" against Tehran by its American archenemy at a time of mounting tension over its nuclear program, the AFP reported.

A cultural advisor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described the film as "American psychological warfare against Iran."

The film, based on Frank Miller's graphic novel, has been a huge hit in North America and other countries, notably Greece. The AFP reported that it is highly improbable the film would ever be screened in the Islamic republic, but contraband DVDs of the latest American movies are often available on the streets as soon as they are internationally released.

[dean]

Yup I can't wait till this is released.  Even if it's over-stylised crap, it'll still be AWESOMELY over-stylised crap and I'll love it.

[Joe]

haha that little comic made me laugh, movie kicked ass IMO the slow-mo was a tad over done but i like the bloody-limbs-flying-every-where-carnage so i loved it even more because of the slow-mo. yea and i remember sitting in the theatre thinking " WTF is up with that goat guy?" it was shown and then never heard form again.