300

[aimeekitty]

more stuff on ebay


pluses:
-- the queen was awesome.
-- I cared about the characters
-- men being MEN!
-- other than a few choice scenes (that were seriously EW) the violence/gore wasn't that bad
-- some of the action cooreography was OMGYEAY awesome (which basically meant that the film delivered what it said it was)
-- I do believe that there are some things worth fighting and dying for.


negatives:
-- what was up with the sometimes grainy, sometimes not film? it was seriously distracting to me
-- that wolf was extremely retarded. I'm sorry.
-- I love faramir, but that voice over was cheesy to me.
-- some of the shot choices and cutting felt a little too forced to me.
-- the deformed people and "monster-types" were almost comically weird. I mean really.
-- what was up with the huge amount of boobies 15 sexual positions?
-- I didn't really buy xerxes or the emmissaries... they seemed too comic-booky to me. I wanted xerxes to be all Ra from stargate, but he came off as just kinda weird. this was one of the many parts of the movie where I was like "... hrm. that was almost cool"
-- I would have really loved the oracle scene if it wasn't all "LOOK AT MY BOOB". I know that totally makes me a prude, but I guess the nipplage was distracting me from her beauty. I love that they did it as an underwater scene. Mitch didn't notice, but I could tell from her mouth that that's how they probably did it.
-- hello gladiator wife-barley ending with ethnic deadcandance singing?
-- why was there not even a paragraph of text at the end explaining what happened AFTER the movie? explaining just how much those 300 meant to the turning of the battle? I would have liked to have scene troops rallying from various areas because of the 300, or at least a paragraph at the end saying basically that xerxes was all "omg... spartans are scary" and ended up loosing. there just wasnt enough historical context at the end for me.

final negative:
at least 10 kids under six were in the audience. HOLY CRAP what are their parents thinking. And to make it worse, the kids were totally quiet. never cried or made any scared or disturbed comments, etc...
which means those kids have seen plenty of movies like this before and they're used to it. I'm seriously scared for the next generation.

overall? I'm glad I saw it. It gave me what it advertised. I really really liked parts of it. There were just a great number of things I would have liked to have seen them do better.

Comments

[ajmeow.livejournal.com]

Actually the entire thing is off historically. It wasn't a turning point and I feel like Frank Miller injected a lot of that "Free Men" stuff that isn't there in historical accounts. Leonidas bought Greece more time to prepare (or that's the theory) but the battle of Thermopylae was small in the grand scheme of the war. The Persians weren't defeated in Greece until much later and Xirces wasn't even there.

Anyways... you should cosplay the queen if mitch is gonna do leonidas!!! =D

[unmei-no-yume.livejournal.com]

Actually Dilios (David Wenham) explains at the end when he is talking to the soldiers that all the events of the Battle at Thermopylae took place nearly a year ago and they were actually about to fight at the Battle of Plataea (where the remaining Persian army would be defeated and they would have 'victory)and they do not mention Xerxes at all because I think he left after Salamis? The Battle at Thermopylae is historically supposed to have given time for the Athenians to get together and I believe embark on a naval battle so they could win at Salamis so it wasn't that small I should think. But yes, it was also just one of many battles fought between the Greeks and Persians.

[aimeekitty.livejournal.com]

part of my problem was from a story-telling standpoint. I realize that the movie is at least "mostly-kinda" fanciful... in which case they should have made the sacrifice of those 300 more valid, by providing a proper denuemon... f..ad.kajs I cant spell. "end of the movie, close up the story properly thing"

[ajmeow.livejournal.com]

Yeah I hear what you're saying about the ending being kinda not so complete... that's probably why they had the narrator and all. Very Frank Miller dialogue in the background. =)

I personally found it interesting that he injected all that "free men fighting for the RIGHT thing" in there which is probably fiction, and even manufactured how the Spartans got to the battle in the first place, and then decided to be somewhat historically accurate at the end after all. (That's not including the part where there were other soldiers at that pass other than the spartans. =P )

[naveen.livejournal.com]

there where like three kids in the theatre when i went to see it too. i wanted to slap the hell out of their parents. seriously, WTF mate...dont take your kids to see this kind of movie, it's for adults. >

[nopenname.livejournal.com]

they seemed too comic-booky

That and the grainy weird film sorta look and probably the over graphic slo-mo blood spatters were to immulate the Frank Miller Comic the movie was based on.

It's funny you should read the Amazon.com "official" review of the comic and it's basically the same critique of the comic as yours of the movie.

[aimeekitty.livejournal.com]

bleh. frank miller. F minus.

[zalem.livejournal.com]

Well, it is based off of a comic book so it's not surprising that it's not totally on historically. I'm guessing they didn't have an ending showing what happened after because the comic itself didn't have that and they wanted to stay true to the comic.

[uminomamori.livejournal.com]

Frank Miller = boobies.

[tristencitrine.livejournal.com]

I pretty much COMPLETELY agree with your thoughts on the movie with it being a little too sexy when it didn't NEED to be. The story was great enough on its own. I don't know about the actual actress, but the fact that the underagedness of the oracles was mentioned, the whole thing was a little ooooogie.

Now, there was a couple CRYING BABIES in the theater when we went! it made me think about the beginning scene with the "unfit". Yeah.

Someday whe I'm a teacher, I'll assign a paper on Thermopylae just to see what happens.

[unmei-no-yume.livejournal.com]

I have to say that I agree with some of what you said. Having seen the director and Gerard Butler and Lena Headey speak at WonderCon I have a different perspective on the movie. I actually wasn't really exited to see it until I saw them. All the comic bookness is because Zack Snyder wanted to be as completely true to the comic as possible. Many scenes are straight out of the comic book (the angle of the shot, the lines, etc). Xerxes' look is straight from teh comic...piercings and all ^^;I have no clue where those scary half-human monsters are from though cause they're not in the comic..

Anyway, I definitely agree that there was way too much boobage but I suppose since there was all that eye candy for the girls there had to be some eye candy for the guys? =P

But there is a surprising number of actual accuracy from some lines ("Come and get it"-Leonidas, may be based on the rough translation of the writing under a statue made of him in Thermopylae which says Come and take them), to characters and events the Immortals being the finest of Xerxes' warriors, Ephialtes being a traitor (but not hunchback and scary ^^), the last rain of arrows... etc. One thing I was a little irked with is that they put so much emphasis on the 300 Spartans...yes I know the movie is based on them but there were stil several thousand Thebans and Thespians that stayed to help them.

Anyway sorry this is such a long comment! I really enjoy Greek History and mythology so I couldn't help myself ^^ I definitely think this movie is one of those movies people either like or don't like depending on your taste. At the very least it's quite entertaining and has a lot more artistic sense than a lot of movies these days...

[aimeekitty.livejournal.com]

well, if my problems with it are because they were true to the comic, then that makes me like them more and frank miller less. (I was already not a frank miller fan, so one more mark up on the "Frank Miller is the emperor's new clothes wall")

I knew about the "come and get them" line, that's pretty cool actually.

my problem with the boobage,...? that there was so much of it. seriously. It was like two guys sitting in a room going "hey, so then we'll have two girls kissing." "Oh... really? why not have 2 girls on top of each other with 6 girls kissing behind them and have 15 front on boob shots" "YEAH!"
It was just WAY over the top. I dont mind a little boob, but this was like just comical.

it bothered mitch that they made it seem like only the spartans stayed too, because when the bald guy left, actually many thebans, etc, stayed too. and that actually would have been from a story standpoint, very interesting, ... because they were "the potter" and the "sculptor" and yet they still stayed. There's a lot of weight to that that they missed out on.

[little-teacup.livejournal.com]

hello gladiator wife-barley ending with ethnic deadcandance singing

Thank youuuu I thought I was the only person who noticed that. I was like "Oh gosh don't pull a Gladiator!!" It didn't exactly do it, but it was too darn close. Stupid.

And yeah, all those boobs were way too much for me. Ugh.

[columbine.livejournal.com]

The chick was underwater in that scene and the nipple did distract me... in fact most of those nipple scenes distracted me... and did I really need to see all those sexual positions in the love scene with King and Queen... no...

As for the kids...

I watched far worse when I was younger than 6... These stories never bothered me as a child (including the Gore/Horror movies)... the evening news scared me more than anything... because I knew as a kid what was "real" and what was "fake"... people underestimate the comprehension of children. If the parents took them to see it hopefully the kids grasped the reality check.

[yuki-yarrow.livejournal.com]

I was literally forced to go to Final Destination 3 and was shocked at how some parents let their kids go see that. And they didn't even do anything either! I had my face covered the entire time.
I fear for the mental trauma the next generation will have.

[her-red-dreams.livejournal.com]

I'm really glad I read this, because I'm gonna go see the movie in a few days. I feel much better being prepared for the boob, I know I would have been shocked and angry otherwise.
I kinda feel that nipples are not something that adds real value to a movie...

[spazmodic.livejournal.com]

um, what about the lobster handed guy that only existed to chop that one guys head off?

and did anyone else see that goat playing the flute? what?

[aimeekitty.livejournal.com]

yes, hence "weird monsters = f minus"

[milk-eye.livejournal.com]

Awww, I liked the weird monsters :(

[ashbet]

I liked the weird monsters (just for eye-candy value, I was also wondering WTF they were doing in the movie, but they were fun), and I didn't think the nipple-age was *too* intense for an R-rated movie -- after all, the entire film was deluged with man-nipples, it's only our (fairly distorted) culture that says that female nipples are overly sexualized whereas male nipples are a non-issue.

I was, however, VERY glad that Kira (smart girl) chose to go to the bathroom when it became obvious that there was going to be a sex scene between Leonidas and his queen (what was her NAME, anyway??)

I thought long and hard before deciding to take her to the movie, but she's 14 and really wanted to see it, and I decided that the comic-bookiness of it made it acceptable. She wouldn't have wanted to go if it had more realistic gore in it. She's also a huge history buff, so she was fascinated by the real-life story of the battle.

I absolutely *loved* the movie, although I'd have chosen a different voice-over actor and would have added a bit more closure at the end (even just some text letting us know what eventually happened -- I think it's just assumed that the movie audience knows that the Persians were eventually defeated.)

-- A <3

[april-art.livejournal.com]

Heheh... I liked some of the weird monsters. Lobster Man wasn't so bad, I thought. But the design and animation of the wolf didn't quite work for me.

These guys believed in gods walking about... Or that they were descendants of gods. Lots of pretty odd critters in their tales, so I could understand the fantasy elements.

Plus, it helped that I saw the director and actors talking about the film on the History Channel just the night before the film opened--so I knew what to expect. They covered the part about things deviating from historical fact (what there was of it, anyway), and which lines were actually said to have been spoken by various people... Kinda cool to know beforehand.

Yeah... I caught the Gladiator-ish elements. But it didn't bother me that much. 'Didn't care for the warty priests. Nipple-age was distracting, but liked the under-water priestess/oracle... it captured the eerie drug-dream quality of what I imagine the whole oracle-thing might have been like.

I enjoyed the film overall. ^___^