300 looks like nothing you’ve ever seen before. It also looks great most of the time with its mixture of CGI and very distinctive cinematography. I just wished I’d liked it more, because I really wanted to.
You probably know what the movie’s about, whether you’ve seen it or not: the three hundred Spartans who stood off a huge Persian army at the battle of Thermopylae, or the Hot Gates, as it’s referred to in the film. Having spent all my life in the same state where the Alamo is located, I’m a sucker for this kind of yarn, and I like the whole “honor and courage in the face of overwhelming odds” plot. But I thought the jerky, hard-to-follow, video-game-like battle scenes in 300 got old real quick, as did the buckets of blood being spilled. On the other hand, I really liked most of the quieter scenes where the characters are talking between the fights. There’s some excellent dialogue and acting to be found in those.
While I like Frank Miller’s work in the comics and graphic novel format, I’m starting to think that it just doesn’t translate that well to film, at least for me. I didn’t care for SIN CITY, and while I thought 300 was better, my opinion of it is still mixed. 300 is okay at best, and I’m not sure I’d recommend it to anybody who isn’t really interested in the subject matter.
You probably know what the movie’s about, whether you’ve seen it or not: the three hundred Spartans who stood off a huge Persian army at the battle of Thermopylae, or the Hot Gates, as it’s referred to in the film. Having spent all my life in the same state where the Alamo is located, I’m a sucker for this kind of yarn, and I like the whole “honor and courage in the face of overwhelming odds” plot. But I thought the jerky, hard-to-follow, video-game-like battle scenes in 300 got old real quick, as did the buckets of blood being spilled. On the other hand, I really liked most of the quieter scenes where the characters are talking between the fights. There’s some excellent dialogue and acting to be found in those.
While I like Frank Miller’s work in the comics and graphic novel format, I’m starting to think that it just doesn’t translate that well to film, at least for me. I didn’t care for SIN CITY, and while I thought 300 was better, my opinion of it is still mixed. 300 is okay at best, and I’m not sure I’d recommend it to anybody who isn’t really interested in the subject matter.
1 comment:
For me, "300" was mostly just an enjoyable visual feast. I liked the cinematography quite a bit. But I watched it for that more than for the story per se.
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