Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Frank Miller's 300

Due to college courses, lack of funds, and part laziness, I ended up being one of the only people I know not seeing Frank Miller's 300 in theaters. So for the most part, this review is completely past it's prime, but for those interested, here's my thoughts.

The story of the 300 Spartans is an old one, with some historical accuracy to it. Frank Miller's graphic Novel distorted some of the historical significance, but he did manage to keep most of it in tact. The story follows the 300-manned Spartan army into the Battle of Thermopylae against the Persians. The Spartans were heavily outnumbered. (Obviously there were no statiticians around or scribes to get down all the exact numbers at this time in history, so I've seen different numbers for the Persians ranging anywhere from 1200-1600 men. Let's just say the Persians outnumbered the Spartans by a lot.) The reason this story is remebered is because the Spartans won the battle of Thermopylae despite the huge odds against them. The Spartans were well-trained warriors who used their strategy and expereince in battle to outweigh their opponents. The Spartans eventually were defeated but their victory in Thermopylae is what's remembered most.


That brings me to Frank Miller's Graphic Novel and Film. Miller (on the right in the Photo) is a comic book legend, ranging from Daredevil to Batman to 300 to Sin City, he's accomplished a lot in the industry. With the success of Sin City it was no surprise that Miller wanted to make 300 into a film as well. The Graphic Novel was printed on extra wide pages so each page looked more like a painting than just mere comic art. The most fascinating part about the movie would have to be how Miller and Director Zach Snyder managed to make it look so much like the graphic novel. Every camera angle, the mood, the sepia tone skyline, it all looked and felt just like the pages in Millers book. However their is a draw back to this, because Miller made the movie almost verbatem to his book, I already knew what was going to happen at every scene. There were no surprises in it for me at all, but this is a minor problem, because I'm the only one I know who read the Graphic Novel before watching the movie.


The movie itself was a cinematogrophy masterpeice. There were a few times where I could have sworn I was looking at a painting and then all of a sudden one of the characters moved and I remembered I was watching a movie again. The storyline is decent, although at times it's hidden throughout all the action. The acting was good, and it was pleasing to see Miller & Snyder go with a no-name cast rather than going the "Troy" route and casting someone like Brad Pitt. (Not knocking Pitt though, he's the man) This was overall an impressive action film with some of the most brutal fighting you will ever see. It's a good thing Frank Miller's not done making movies. I have high expectations for The Spirit and Sin City 2.
Ratings:
Movie: 8.9
Graphic Novel: 9.1

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