300

[Gryphon]

Lets put it this way. We had to buy our tickets last night because this baby sold out. The theater was packed! I don't even remember what the previews were because the movie was that good. The line "Madness? This. Is. Sparta!" Rang throughout the night. Every possible combination that could spark that line was thought of and said. If you ask for them I will tell of them. But half the fun is making your own.

To put it shortly this movie continues the beloved legacy of Sin City. Brutal fight scenes with blood and gore. Sexuality. And some damn good one liners. The cinematography is some of the best in the world. Truth be told there is not much you can do to screw up such an epic story. Heck. Most of the one liners are so beautiful that you can do the movie just on their strength alone.

The plot, if you've done your history homework, concerns the life of the Spartan King Leonidas.  It starts from the beginning as all stories start with the birth of a child. And it ends in death. The fun part is watching what happens in the middle.

The Good: As I said before this is an epic legendary story.
Sin City style cinematography.
The fight scenes are brutal and entertaining.
Pretty damn good use of matrix moments.
The God King Xerxes actually has a godlike voice. Finally someone does that right.
Main characters dying. Normally this would put it into bad or ugly but lets face it. They sort of have to die.
The Hero Arrow Volley.
The Sex.
The Violence.
The Rock and Roll.

The bad:
Granted its not 100% historically accurate but its done to mirror the original 300 comic book.

The Ugly: The bad guys are pretty damn ugly. If it's ugly. It's evil.

Things to Keep in Mind:
The Greek word for Traitor
This really happened. Sort of.
Spartans are the armored division of the ancient world.
The battle of Thermopylae.
No animals were harmed in the making of this film.

So yeah. Go watch this. You wont be disappointed.

[Valynth]

Indeed I plan to, tommorrow...or today (depending on where you live).  My brother, sister, and sister-in-law are all going and I'll be there with them.  I can't wait!

Also, maybe my brother-in-law might be coming with us, depends on his schedule.

[thegayhare]

it's interesing history channel had a show on this last night as part of there barbarians week

the spartan society was an interesting one to be sure...

I've never read the comic so I don't know what to expect but I do have one question

In the movie were the thespians mentioned?  Probably not since the movie will focus on the spartans and isn't ment to be historiclay accurate.  When the spartans sent away the rest of the army and made ready to fight there delaying action 1000 thespian soldiers volnteered to stay and fight with them.  so it should be the 1300 *chuckles*

My favorite line has to be
"Our arrows will blot out the sun"
"Then we shall fight in the shade"

[Zedd]

Sounds fun..And I love to see it

[Reese Tora]

Saw this earlier this afternoon.

The movie was good.

Watching the trailer for it a few weeks back, a friend of mine claimed that it was a propaganda piece.  With that in mind, and watching the movie, I could definently see a lot of various propaganda elements watching it.  I don't know that I would have seen anythign of the sort had he not mentioned it, but I didn't let it ruin my enjoyment of the movie.

Taken at face value, it was definently a good movie, no matter how historically innacurate it may have been at some points.  (I doubt the politics in the movie are anything like real life.)




***spoiler - you have been warned***














The friend in question, being a history major, told me about the real battle when we were watching the trailer... the 300 were fighting a holding action while the city evacuated to the sea, which was not part of the movie.  Had I only known the movie, I would have wondered why the persians didn't just march in and sack the place once they defeated the 300.

[Gryphon]

Yes the volunteers were there. They got a little screen time but realistically you know who the story was going to be around. As the story was told many left to retreat. Some stayed behind.

They did. They sacked and burned Athens to the ground. However so much damage was done to the morale and the navy by the Athenians that they bought enough time for the festivals to be over and the armies to regroup. They struck back and won. Driving Xerxes back to Persia.

[Reese Tora]

I meant one would expect them to have sacked the city in the movie, but nothing of the sort (evacuation or sacking) took place, and I got the impression that no sort of evacuation was taking place as far as the movie was concerned.

[thegayhare]

well in part that makes sense Reese since I think (and this is just speculation on my part)  but the city scenes in the movie would have been the city of Sparta.  The persians were attacking Athens in revenge for the battle of marathon and the like

[Alondro]

*mimics some of the terrorist-trolls whose comments he saw on Yahoo Movies*  U MAKE Iranians bad!  This R BUSH PrpOGNDA!@  WE R NEVER FORGIVE U!  UR Citeez bURN Lyke the towers in NY!  HAIL BIN LADIN!

Yes, there actually were comments like that on Friday...  I think most have been removed by now.

Simply put, don't go to Hollywood expecting a history lesson.  That's what the History Channel is for.  Action movies are supposed to be over-the-top and end up either not really making any logical sense, or having wayyyy massive battles with everyone having powers and stuff.   

Plus, we all know the inhabitants of Persia are evil monsters.  I believe the movie! 

[ilpalazzo]

BEST F****** MOVIE EVER!!!!!!! EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love the cinematics, everything was fluid. IT ROCKS

[Boog]

Meaning to see that, doubly so now that I've seen what some people have to say. I thought it would be all fight scenes and one liners, but there's a plot too!? Definatly seeing that.

[Zedd]

http://nessparta.ytmnd.com/ 

[King Of Hearts]

This is how you do comic book movies... the way the tones are done, its just like reading.

[Saist]

I can't say I was fond of the overly sexual scenes...

But I loved the battle scenes. Like "A Knight's Tale," the idea of mixing Rock into a movie set in history seems kind of silly...

but it works. Especially when the Spartans step forward and that guitar kicks in. The whole CRUNCH on the first encounter with the Persians. The flipping of the Persians over the shields.

When the sword is run through the traitor... we all clapped...

Yeah, that's how a comic book is brought to life. Now I just need to find 300 people to go take a walk with.

[thegayhare]

What most folks don't realises is this whole war was fought due to disagreaments on the proper way to eat noodles

[Gryphon]

Heh. I remember seeing that on the penny arcade forum. I'm still waiting for that guy who does flash to mix the scene of jack skellington singing "What's this?" and Leonidas screaming "This! Is! Sparta!" over and over and over again...

Now I know they had to stick to the basic history and all. But there were two Spartans I would have loved to see in this movie.

Kratos the God of War...
And this Spartan.
http://thatvideosite.com/video/4047

[xHaZxMaTx]

http://thatvideosite.com/video/4047

  Holy crap, that kicks ass on soooo many levels!

[thegayhare]

Hmmm I just came across an interesting artical about 300 on a gay news site I visit.
It wasn't the movie review, Which actualy said they though 300 was rather boring as you can only watch people hacking at each other interesting for so long,  The artical was more about Frank Miller's use of effeminate features and steroetypical gay behavior in his villians,  they commented on Millers depiction of the joker from batman looking like an aged drag queen and constantly caling him "Darling" in 300 he specificly picked out the depiction of Xerxes as an overly femine nancy boy (when historicly he was a rough impresive figgure groomed from birth to be a warrior)  and the inclusion of a line when Leonidas refures to the athinians as "Boy-lovers"

Now since the majority of the audiance going to see this are straight males The glossing over of the spartans own homosexual traditions is understandable but the auther just wishes Miller had gone beyond he persians are perverts sterotype.

*shrugs*

Oh welI 'm still going to see it
*chuckles*

[King Of Hearts]

Miller is known to be homophobic, it shows in his works. His lady characters I pity even more.

And yes watch it... a friend of mine once said "No amount of boobies could distract me from all that manservice."

[Blazehawk]

When the sword is run through the traitor... we all clapped...

That was my favorite part, and we did the same in our theater.  One of the better movies I've seen lately, in my opinion.