Hmmm. With all the hype behind this movie (from myself included), the stellar box-office returns it raked in for its opening weekend ($70 million), and the fact that it enthusiastically had Frank Miller's endorsement as being completely faithful to his source material, I'm almost a bit afraid to write my opinions about 300 on this page, for fear I'll be ridiculed and thrown off a cliff like a defective Spartan baby. But my fortune cookie from last Saturday's dinner said, "Do what you believe is right," so I'll just say it--300 wasn't great, it was just OK.
The star of this film, of course, was the stylized visuals created with a mix of cinematography and green screen CGI magic. The faded out colors with the somewhat golden-bronze wash emphasizing the crimson red of blood and ominous shadows certainly make this film look more like a painting than a movie, and pays respect to its graphic novel origins. This may be the only reason why I would highly recommend seeing 300 on the big screen before it hits DVD. Unfortunatly, I think there may have been too much exposure to the final product in the promotional trailers prior to the film's openings. I remember seeing The Matrix for the first time and being completely blown away by the bullet time visuals that completely changed how action films were shot ever since. With 300, I wasn't so much impressed, as I was satisfied, having seen so much of the slow-motion/realtime-motion action sequences prior to sitting in the theater.
The biggest disappointment with the film, though, was that I never really got the sense of the importance of this battle. There's a lot of talk about fighting for freedom and the preservation of Greece, but I never got the essence of what that really meant. Was living under Persian rule really that bad? I don't know. Perhaps the modern take on this story and its implications on the world as we know it today is that the stand of the 300 helped preserve Greece, and therefore Western civilization. Instead of the United States being the world superpower it is today, the Middle East would be the center of the world had the 300 crumbled easily under Xerxes armies. No wonder audiences are trying to weave some political propaganda into this movie. But that's just me trying to put some greater importance on this event in history--the director never really developed that for me, which is a shame.
The secondary story with the Spartan Queen trying to rally up reinforcements for her husband seemed unnecessary. In the end, her efforts seemingly had no impact on anything that went on in the movie, and may only have been included to give the audience a bit of a break from the tense action going on at Thermopylae. And although I can't say I mind seeing Lena Headey's boobies, the sex scene between her and Gerard Butler seemed a bit gratuitous to me. I guess we're supposed to understand the deep love between Leonidas and his queen after this, which is supposed to resonate throughout the entire movie until his glorious death, but it just doesn't work. In fact, Gladiator, a film where you only get a glimpsing shot of the protagonists family, does a much better job of conveying that sense of family longing without resorting to some cheap eye candy to pander to the nerdiest of comic book fanboys out there.
Alas, in my mind, 300 will fall short of being the groundbreaking film that the hype made it out to be. Essentially, it was good action movie eye candy that was entertaining, but not all that satisfying. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow actually already accomplished much of what 300 does visually, and has since been lost in the bins of DVD obscurity. Both of these films essentially forget what makes a truly great film--characters and good plot development. But until a director can meld these new technologies to tell a compelling story, I guess we'll have to snack on these kind of movies for awhile.
Let the arguments commence--the comments section is now open.
(**1/2 out of *****)
Monday, March 12, 2007
Was it just me, or did anyone else feel like they had to go home and do some sit-ups after this movie?
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13 comments:
It was about what I expected, visually, story, and acting wise. I liked it more than you, but not as much as Wander expected to like it.
(Waiting on Wander's take, by the way.)
All of the points you made, Pimp, I actually think differently. I wasn't as blown away by these visuals as I was Matrix bullet time, but I think the blend of slow and fast motion, and "floating cameras" (where they use multiple camera stills and rotate the view) was superb. None of this was new technology, but I think this was the best example of those techniques blended together that I have ever seen. They chose the perfect times to slow and then speed up to reveal the fighting techniques. Often the audience will miss what happens if it is all normal speed. 300 seemed to show the action almost like it was a training film.
And we see here Leonidas keeps his momentum from the stab by sliding his right foot backwards and then twisting at the waist to get a good wind up to cut off the next guy's head.
I also thought the acting was very good, all around. As for character development, I think Leonidas wife was the most developed character. And, her lobbying for the army was very important because it was the second, full army of Spartans and other Greeks that finally defeated the Persian army. (But this is something that they didn't make clear I think.) It's part of her character development that she doesn't say, "Yeah, you go fight and I'll sit here." She trying to get help for her hubby, and save her city. In short, it shows her being a good queen, and the lengths she went to accomplish this.
And finally, the titties weren't gratuitous in my opinion. In my opinion, they were perfect; with really erect nipples. The only thing missing was a great butt shot (other than Leonidas, that is.)
Well, I am unsure if anyone has seen my take which was on the post below because I posted it before Swany came up with this one.
I will say though that I side with Swany on Leonidas's wife, because from the movie I gathered that the second army was really influenced by the one warrior returning to talk to the council more than by the words of the wife.
Well, a few days late, but I'll finally let you mighty Spartans in on my thoughts about the film.
I definetly enjoyed it, despite seeing it with one of the most annoying theater crowds Tellulah and I have had the dubious honor of seeing a film with. It wasn 't that the audience didn't enjoy it, in fact it was just the opposite. On Tellulah's left was a much older couple (in their sixties at least) and the wife would NOT shut up about how she felt about every scene or line. She quite obviously loved what was going on, and couldn't hold it in. Meanwhile, on my right two much younger girls (not old enough to drive but almost) who were seeing the film with their father (and I assumed before the movie began they were there for the gratuitous ab shots)caught the nuance and humour of every scene or line, and immediately began dissecting the element with all the fervor and heat of a UCLA film class. Very strange.
Ok, the film itself. It lived up to it's graphic novel roots in rare form. I loved the cinematography, and the scene where the rainstorm is pounding them while they watch the fleet sink was one of the most visually impressive vignettes I've seen. But there wasn't anything in the film, including that scene, that Sin City hadn't already done, and accomplished with a much more artistic flare. Sin City was shot with the idea of capturing Frank Miller's film noir influence on the graphic novels. 300, while capturing the colors and shading incredibly well, didn't really have any of the same goal to achieve, and it felt a bit aimless in it's pursuit. The mythological elements, the incredible godlike look of Xerxes, the ungodliness of the malformed and abandoned, was all very well done. As were the fight scenes, and I too loved the slow down-speed up effects, and had the same thought as Jorge "This could be a training film for Spartan tactics!"
I didn't feel the breasts were gratitous at all. My Greek history class my Sophomore year taught me that the Spartans actually fought naked most of the time, so there was most likely much less nudity then there could have been. "Yes, but what nudity there was had to be tits?" In today's society, yeah. As for the love scene, show me another film that actually shows a MARRIED couple have some good hot sex, and I'll shake your hand. If Hollywood has taught us anything, it's that married people can only have hot sex with an extamarital fling, and single people have WAY more sex all together. I actually appreciated it.
But, one thing Tellulah said as we were driving away was "That film had some nice breasts in it." I thought it odd that was what she came away with, as the breasts were really more incedental I felt, not gratuitous. My reply though was "I was just in it for the swords."
I think we both learned a little something about ourselves...
So final analysis, really liked it, but did it live up to my expectations? I wanted some great action, lots of sword play, and some moral grandstanding. Hey, I got all that, so that's not too shabby.
Oh, and something I forgot to add in reply to Swany's review. As far as Gladiator goes, one of the things I felt was most weak about that film was how little we actually get convinced he cares for his wife and child, and in fact Maxi can't wait to stick his tongue down the queens throat towards the end. Sort of how Rose at the end of Titanic has all these kids and grandkids with some guy she was married to forever yet her idea of heaven is being with some kid she spent 3 days with 90 years before... If she loved Jack that much she should have been a lonly old spinster, or drowned herself and saved us having to sit through the movie at all. All those people who actually died on the Titanic must still be rolling in their watery grave. Or Braveheart, where Wallace all but overthrows England because of his love for his dead wife, and then sleeps with the Queen of France at the end, and seems to enjoy it a little too much... Wow, way to make all that death in vain there Scotty.
So in 300, the fact we see Leonidas and his Queen have hot sex, love each other, and he doesn't sleep with Xerxes at the end, or shack up with an oracle for the next 50 years, actually made me think maybe he does have something worth fighting for. My opinion.
Oh, and I realize there's the whole thing with the Queen doing what she has to to convince the council, but she didn't do it because she wanted to, she did it because she felt it was best for her husband. So =P
Uh, I think Tellulah was talking about the buffed up man-breasts, and those were definitely gratuitous. ;-)
I get what you're saying about married couples and onscreen sex, but I still contend that this movie didn't need that scene at all, or anything else having to do with the queen. Perhaps this was to show Leonidas' inspiration to fight off Xerxes? But if it was, it just wasn't developed well, in my opinion. Maybe it played out better in the graphic novel, or maybe there's a longer director's cut that would make this work a bit better. And as Willie commented, it was the return of the one-eyed Spartan, not the queen's lobbying of the Senate, that seemed to be the impetus to gather the Greek coalition together for the second battle alluded to at the end of the movie. Maybe I need to go back to the original Herodotus to see who actually got everyone rallied together.
One more thing, I'm not saying 300 was better then Gladiator, or Titanic, or Braveheart, I think what I'm saying is I percieve things much differently then most everyone else when I watch films. I love Gladiator, and watch it often. Braveheart was good, but I've never been a real Mel Gibson fan. As for Titanic, I have a hatred for that movie that is primal, so don't get me started. 300 will never be put in the same category as any of those films, yet I enjoyed it more then two of those films, so that shows what I'm trying to say. I don't have quite the same mainstream tastes as most, but I don't think any of us on this blog do really.
Ok, I'm done.
In response to Swany's response to my response, of course it was the one eyed Spartan (nice to see Farimer from LOTR in another good role by the way) who convinced the council. What self respecting Greek is going to listen to a woman? And that whole part was written specifically for the movie. The graphic novel is nothing but panel after panel of fighting, blood, combat, or various scenes of marching. And who wants to see a film with only that? Well, besides me.
You don't like Titanic? But I saw that movie, like, 20 times in the theater.
I'm kidding, of course. The person that saw it 20 times was my wife's old college roommate. I watched it once in theater, hated it, then tried to watch it on TNT a few weeks ago just to remind myself why I hated it so much.
I understand about having sort of alternative tastes in movies. Heck, I still get a laugh watching Joe Versus the Volcano, and most people (including some of the readers of this blog I suspect) think that was the biggest stinker in both Tom Hanks' and Meg Ryan's careers.
"And these lights! Suck, suck, suck..."
I saw Joe Versus The Volcano in the theater... twice. And I'll still watch it if it's on, so we'll stand together against the onslaught my friend.
But I'm an absolute sucker for the one-two punch of Hanks/Ryan.
I still get misty eyed at the end of You've Got Mail every single time I watch it, which is fairly regularly, and in fact it and Sleepless were two of the first dvd's I purchased.
And as for you hating Titanic too... I've never loved you more then this moment Swany.
How can two lead actors of such enormous talent and the director whom god himself would ask to direct his autobiopic put out such sappy crap?
It makes me hurt thinking about it. I think I'll go home and watch Black hawk Down to wash the awful taste out of my mouth.
Or maybe You've Got Mail, now that I know there's no shame in it.
I hated titanic as well. The main reason I hated it though was that it broke the record of my beloved Star Wars: A New Hope. I actually had friends who refused to see it so they would not be the ones to push it over the top.
Speaking of breaking records ... once they are broken then they get broken alot. Case in point the number of comments on this blog. Never have we surpassed single digit comments until last week, and now this one.
I still don't know what you're talking about. Those boobs were gorgeous; what other reason do you need to include them in the film?
Haven't seen the film, but all this talk about the "One Eyed Spartan..." I thought you people were discussing boobs, not love sausages?
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