Posted by
Catmman on Saturday, March 17, 2007 10:38:46 PM
I'm pretty critical of movies which are even loosely based on historical events. But since this movie is adapted from a comic book ("graphic novel" for you purists) I was able to leave that bias behind.
I also was not interested in the greater "socio, political message" some have wanted to attribute to this movie.
With that said, this is a kick a$$ movie! It was even better watching it on an IMAX screen.
I know this may seem a bit late since the movie has been out for just over a week now, but last night was the first night I could get to the theater.
I loved the cinematography. The art direction was great as well. The CGI mixed with the live action almost seamlessly. There is great on-screen adaptation of some of the actual story boards from the comic. The acting was pretty good as far as it goes, but this is a movie of visuals and I actually took more away from the narration of the story than from most of the dialogue.
My only complaint is with the side story of the Queen dealing with the Spartan politicians. This is not part of the comic and was added for dramatic effect. It did allow for better pacing of the primary story, but was a slight distraction in my opinion.
As a historical aside, anyone who bothers to read history knows the battle in "300" was only part of a greater conflict. Hemistocles, another Greek was busy giving the Persian Navy what for up until the annihilation of Leonidas and his ground forces. This battle was ultimately a defeat for the greeks and resulted in the sacking and razing of Athens by the Persians. However, s short time later, as depicted at the end of "300", the Persians were soundly defeated by Greek ground forces at the Battle of Platea and the Persian Navy was also resoundingly defeated by the greeks at the Battle of Salamis. These later Persian defeats led to the halting of Persian western expansion and were the catalyst for later Greek and Macedonian expansion into the East nullifying Persian influence for over 1000 years.
Anyway, this is a great movie. Just enough historical context to make the story compelling, but also with added comic book and Hollywood fantasy to make the movie extremely entertaining. I and my family were extremely impressed and entertained with this movie. A must see IMO as well as one to add to any home movie collection when it comes out on video.
Of course if this review seems too biased, shoot over to Hot Air and
take a look at this.