Just saw 300, and I gotta say it's a damn fine film. It followed the Frank Miller graphic novel pretty close to form. The film inserted a decent secondary story line about Leonidas' wife and the local politicians, and there were a few omissions from the comic. Otherwise, it looks like the graphic novel was essentially used as a storyboard for the film (as was with Sin City). Granted, the dialog is a bit stilted, but what do you expect? Miller's prose seemed dead natural in the Spillanesque world of Sin City - not so much in a sword and sandals epic, but all that noise takes a backseat to the saccharine sweet eye-candy visuals.
This sucker was chock full of frenetic comic book over-the-top optical goodness. It was absolutely beautiful, and I'm hoping that studios take notice the success of 300, Sin City, and V for Vendetta and start making more movies based on comic books THAT KEEP THE FUCKING LOOK AND FEEL OF THOSE COMIC BOOKS (I'm holding out high hopes for HBO's Preacher series).
Two ways I ruined the movie for myself ('cuz I'm an idiot):
1) I re-read The Girl's copy of the graphic-novel yesterday, and found myself comparing the movie to the comic all the way through rather than just enjoying it.
I should have waited until afterwards to re-read it, as not to force myself into some weird obsessive comic-geek nitpicking mindset.
2) Just because there is an Irish bar 3 doors down from the theater doesn't mean that I'm obligated to down whiskey and stout for 45 minutes while waiting for the doors to open.
I peed right before I took my seat - by the time that the commercials/coming attractions ended and the feature started I realized that I had to go again. I held onto that piss for 118 goddamned minutes - Not the best way to enjoy a film.
The Girl was the one who was really geeked-up about going to see this one, so no post would be complete without her review of the film:
"Two straight hours of six-packs and banana-hammocks... Fuckin' Sweet!"
Well, there you have it.
7 comments:
Start doing crunches.
I'm thinking that it would be more practical to just hire my own CGI artist.
To quote the great Eric Cartman, this movie was just totally tits
I 'm tellin' Ahmadinejad that you liked it. There goes your new job as special envoy to Iran.
I wonder if Iran is pissed because they made all of the Persians black. Either that, or because all Persians are (apparently) covered in layers of of infected piercings - Infected piercings can make anyone grumpy.
The Liar in a theater? A movie theater?!! I thought you were dead set against that sort of thing. Props to the Girl for persuading you to go.
I haven't caught 300 yet myself. There's an Imax in St. Chuck now, so I'm planning on seeing it there. I heard it was sold out last weekend. I'll probably hit it next week. The fervor should subside by then.
By the way, ZODIAC is excellent. It felt very much like a 70's film, and not much like a serial killer movie. It reminded me most of ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN. The acting is great all around, but Mark Ruffalo steals the film with a beautifully understated performance.
Garv, can we go on a date to see 300 @ the IMax?
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