Frank Millers Graphic Novel/Film '300' Getting Rave Reviews

I damn near walked out of this movie, and would have if my girlfriend weren't having a marvelous time with the supersized celluloid Big Mac.

And, yeah, it's dripping with Iraq War metaphors. It's just full of shit, period.

 

Loved this movie. Didn't think once about any Iraq war parallels (as another poster pointed out, the U.S. sure as shit ain't the underdog army of 300 Spartans, and GWB for all his faults, I don't think is trying to take over the world). Frankly, I'm annoyed at all the political talk on this thread.

Visually, the movie was spectacular. Really one of the most interesting movies to look at I've seen in a long time.

Plot-wise, I wasn't expecting 'Crash,' so I was perfectly satisfied with 25 minutes of setup and then letting the battle begin.

I also liked the scenes between Leonidas and his wife. I thought Butler, in particular, did a good job expressing tenderness through his tough exterior.

The bottom is, if you're looking for a historical period piece or Shakespeare, look elsewhere. But if you want a visually stunning movie with good action, it's well worth the price of admission. And if you're looking for politics, go see 'Breach' or 'The Good Shepherd.'

PS - the one thing that bothered me was that the best three lines in the movie were all in the trailers. They could have at least saved one of them for paying customers. Come on!

 

Breach really sucked. I do not recommend it.

I saw 300 (before I saw this thread). I enjoyed it as a shallow, visually very good, but overall corndog flick. This isn't they type of movie you go into looking for depth. And I never gave the first thought to any modern day geopolitical parallels.

That doesn't mean it wasn't in the mind of dude when he made it - in fact the NPR interview shows it was. Neocons like to see the U.S. as the underdog in a (as they say) Global War on Terror, or Struggle Against Islamo-Fascism, or in the beginning World War III, or Global War Against Extremeism or whatever the catch-phrase of the day is, as long as it is capitalized. And that, my friends, is a factual observation.

 

Never mind that the entire story was written in 1998, when things were a wee bit different. Let's keep forgetting that part.

Not that Frank Miller wouldn't jump to support the political right. No doubt he would.

 

It seems to me that the biggest thing people forget about this movie (especially the ones who call it Anti-Iran, or racist) is that 300 isn't a movie about the Battle of Theo-whateveris, it's the story of the story of the battle of theo-slamalamadingdong. The whole thing is told through the eyes (well eye) of the narrator, the one surviving member of the 300 who is obviously biased and has a serious case of hero-worshiping going on with Leonidas. That's why Xerxes is 9 feet tall, the Persians are obvious bad guys who stand for everything people hate and the whole thing has the ring of a tall tale.

 

The movie's already on IMDB's top 250. Take from that what you will.

 

Hopefully that will even out as the weeks and months pass - it has to. I never expected this to be a masterpiece, or even anything other than a cinematic candy store. I gave up on it being historically accurate before I got in the car to go. But 300 was almost insufferable. It was like they took all the battle scenes from Gladiator, spliced them together, and dubbed "This is for Sparta!" or some such line over it at regular intervals.

And the narrator's voice - holy hell. Why did they cast someone who talked like he's trying too hard to play Long John Silver?

 

The wheatfield scene was shamelessly ripped from Gladiator.

Snyder's pitch to execs was that this movie is going to change the way sword and sandal flicks are made. They're already an easy pitch because they depict something so temporally foreign and arcane as to practically be middle earth/fantasy genre movies.

 

The meadow/field scene wasn't exactly original when it was used in 'Gladiator.'
The movie was so visually striking, it was entertaining despite its flaws.
The narrator/survivor was absolutely awful.

 

Yeah, and it's fun to watch a pod race, too, but what does it mean.

I like my war movies to have some sort of, oh I don't know, emotional gravity?, not just magic light shows whored to audiences.

 

Saw it tonight with my 18 year old twin boys.

I was bored halfway through.

Nice visuals but Jesus, the thing is the cinematic version of a '70's painted van.

The soundtrack was dreadful and the accents--there were British accents, Scottish accents and American accents.

Dumb, dumb movie.