Comments | mothoc: On the subject of "300"

mothoc

On the subject of "300"

Mar 13, 2007 22:53

1) I haven't read the Frank Miller graphic novel on which this movie was directly based.
2) I last read about Sparta back in high school world history class as a footnote somewhere.
3) I've not been a terribly big fan of most movie adaptations of Frank Miller's work so far.
4) The only thing I went into this movie expecting was a lot of violence.

( My thoughts on 300, cut for spoilers or similar. )

movies

Comments 10

badnoodles March 14 2007, 05:14:23 UTC

If the appearance of your evil, bad antagonist makes the audience laugh (repeatedly) instead of being menaced, you have failed as a filmmaker.

I mean seriously. Xerxes was roughly as threatening as a West Hollywood drag queen.

mothoc March 14 2007, 06:10:49 UTC

A West Hollywood drag queen with an army of circus sideshow freak acts numbering in the hundreds of thousands at his disposal. I'm sure Dana Gould could say something choice about wave upon wave of bearded ladies and world's strongest men throwing themselves willingly to be impaled upon the Spartans rock hard spears over and over again in an orgy of violence to please their great, powerful and well-accessorized leader.

here are the historical inaccuracies which bothered me the most stephanometra March 14 2007, 05:32:43 UTC

AGH I AGREE ABOUT THE VOICEOVERS. Fucking don't tell us; show us.

The wolf made me go o_O. So did the persistent mispronunciation of "agoge" (it's ah-go-GAY), in which Leonidas would not have participated anyway because he was a crown prince.

Theron (the traitor guy) couldn't have spent those coins in the marketplace later that day; money was illegal in Sparta (no, really). In lieu of valuable currency they used chunks of iron as bartering tokens - they were worthless for external trade and difficult to collect and transport for domestic spending ( ... )

Re: here are the historical inaccuracies which bothered me the most mothoc March 14 2007, 06:07:33 UTC

I still think Xerxes named his dick "Divine Power." :)

Re: here are the historical inaccuracies which bothered me the most ch00k March 14 2007, 23:22:24 UTC

It's been too long since my WesternCiv class -- I'd forgotten some of that stuff.

edric00 March 14 2007, 12:40:39 UTC

I thought the movie was absolutely beautifully shot. The plot was... really not important. Honestly, I went to see pretty pictures and lots of violence, and I got that.

Also, about the narrator always talking... Amy said that was a direct nod to greek forms of storytelling and theatre. Especially when they had all those scene of people standing absolutly still but engaging in dialogue. I'm sure she could elucidate more. She being the Theatre person.

You know the narration I hated most... The narration during "Princess Bride."

knastymike March 14 2007, 16:07:05 UTC

So I take it you're not a fan of Columbo, either.

plinko March 14 2007, 18:21:56 UTC

I rather liked it. But, I thought it could use more sex to balance out the violence. Maybe a few more subplots that didn't involve killin'. Or a whorin' queen.

Also got a bit preachy on the "justice" and "freedom" tip for my liking. That just didn't seem Spartan to me.

ch00k March 14 2007, 23:18:43 UTC

You forgot your complaint about Leonidas the Scotsman.