'300' - Film review
8 out of 10
A rare film that is actually as good as the trailer promises. The trailer does not contain all the best bits and the rest of the film is not tedious padding between "trailer moments". Based on a comic book which was itself inspired by another film, which was in turn based on the account of Herodotus, it tells a fanciful version of the story of a small army of Spartans standing up to the Persian invasion of Greece in 480BC. It works really well, partly because it is presented as being a pep talk to Greek troops, and so the exaggerations and one-sided story telling are perfectly valid.
It's a whole lot of fun, especially if you like limb-chopping and cool computer effects. The performances are actually really good, which you don't expect in an action film. Gerard Butler has clearly been taking warlord acting lessons from Brian Blessed, and there can be no higher praise than that. I half expected him to say "Gordon's alive?!"
I have no idea how modern directors have any clue what their film will look like. What they see when they shoot is nothing like how it ends up on screen. Hats off to Zack Snyder for pulling off a film of this scope and vision. I enjoyed his Dawn of the Dead remake and now I have real faith that the "unfilmable" Watchmen might actually turn out okay.
A rare film that is actually as good as the trailer promises. The trailer does not contain all the best bits and the rest of the film is not tedious padding between "trailer moments". Based on a comic book which was itself inspired by another film, which was in turn based on the account of Herodotus, it tells a fanciful version of the story of a small army of Spartans standing up to the Persian invasion of Greece in 480BC. It works really well, partly because it is presented as being a pep talk to Greek troops, and so the exaggerations and one-sided story telling are perfectly valid.
It's a whole lot of fun, especially if you like limb-chopping and cool computer effects. The performances are actually really good, which you don't expect in an action film. Gerard Butler has clearly been taking warlord acting lessons from Brian Blessed, and there can be no higher praise than that. I half expected him to say "Gordon's alive?!"
I have no idea how modern directors have any clue what their film will look like. What they see when they shoot is nothing like how it ends up on screen. Hats off to Zack Snyder for pulling off a film of this scope and vision. I enjoyed his Dawn of the Dead remake and now I have real faith that the "unfilmable" Watchmen might actually turn out okay.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
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