300 The Movie Review

I've been a Frank Miller fan ever since his first run on Daredevil, but I'm not much of a fan of his recent work. I didn't like what he did on Dark Knight Strikes Back, nor do I like what he did on Batman with Jim Lee. Although Sin City: Hell And Back started out great, it kind of petered out for me towards the end. 300 was his last great work that I liked. Even before the five- issue series came out in 1998, I was excited. The previews looked fantastic, and I was first in line to get the first issue. I wasn't disappointed. I wrote a letter to the editor, and it got printed in issue #4.

300 came at the heels of 1995's Braveheart, the first great contemporary period "armies vs armies"battle movies that set the stage for things like Gladiator, Lord of the Rings, Troy, Kingdom of Heaven, and eventually the 300 movie. Reading through the complete comic book, I felt the Braveheart vibe with the last scene where the Spartan armies, spurned on and galvanized by the death of their leader, charges headlong into history, the battle never seen, but the outcome never in doubt. If you've not read the comic book, I highly recommend it. Buy the book here.

I loved the comic book. I loved the economic and yet precise and pulse pounding writing, and I loved the large scale artwork. The artwork is a peculiar thing. Frank Miller is a continually evolving artist. Compare the artwork on the very first Sin City and the very last many years later. The change is remarkable. Miller has grown more impressionistic with his art, exaggerating bodies, bending perspectives, each page getting more bombastic than the last one. Applied to 300, this exaggerated art style compliments the story perfectly, if one is to consider the story filtered through the haze of far ancient history, and overenthusiastic storytellers passing on the legends through the centuries.

Burned and disappointed, Frank Miller turned his back on Hollywood many years ago, and would have stayed away if not for the never to be denied enthusiasm and genius of Robert Rodriguez knocking loudly on Miller's door. The result was Sin City , a movie that proved to one and all that you CAN translate a comic book faithfully into film and make it work.

In that regard, Miller has been extremely lucky to have talented directors who care deeply for the source material, making movies off his comic books.

300 The Movie was a terrific adaptation of the comic book. Beware! Spoilers Ahead.

The movie translated faithfully the look and feel of the artwork, and yet breathed a life enough of its own, unhampered by the static nature of the source material. The monochromatic, almost sepia tone of the picture, along with an almost dreamlike environment, captured perfectly the look of a story looked at through the haze of history, exaggerated by the storytellers through the centuries and then in our imaginations. Here are the myths and legends coming alive, and they're larger than life.

Taken with this point of view, many of the fantastic elements of the film are given context and credibility: The enormous height of Xerxes, the enormous size and ferocity of the mutant Persian "immortal", the size of the elephants and rhinoceros, the unimaginable number of arrows that literally blot out the sun, and one suspects, the unimaginable number of armies set against the 300 Spartans.

There are many things added to the film that's not in the comic book, such as the expansion of the role of the queen, played by Lena Heady, demonstrating the strength and conviction of Spartan women only hinted at in the comic book. There was also the addition of a subplot concerning squabbling politicians on the Spartan council. This necessitated the creation of new characters like the loyal council man, and the corrupt councilman Theron played ruthlessly by The Wire's Dominic West. The addition of the monster immortal didn't bother me. It was simply another way in which the Spartans could show how kick ass they are, which is consistent with the source.

I liked how the story is ultimately told through Dilios, played by David Wenham (Faramir in Lord of the Rings), whose narration begins and ends the film. It's a terrific idea but it's something that could have worked much better if they had gotten a much stronger actor. David Wenham is a really good actor, but that's not the problem. It seems by nature Wenham is a bit somber, and is incapable of exuding a presence that is strong and formidable. Such a nature worked perfectly with the gentle Faramir, but in the role of Dilios, who is now responsible for rallying the troops, taking on the mantle of leadership from Leonidas, he is found wanting. His character does not have the power and weight to make the scenes truly dramatic and inspiring.

Gerard Butler as King Leonidas has this power and weight, and it is for that reason that the film stands on firm legs. He does a terrific job as the King, exuding strength, leadership and inspiration to his troops. If there's anything bad I can say about him is that an inappropriate Scottish accent seems to show through, specially in the beginning. It takes you out of the story and makes you go, oh yeah, he's a Scot, not a Spartan.

Storytelling is important in the telling of any story, be it comic book or film. One of the biggest problems with the comic book is that it did not give me a clear picture of the terrain in which the action was taking place. I didn't get a clear picture of what the hot gates are supposed to be, and I didn't get the reason why they had to build a wall. In the film, the terrain was established very clearly and I understood just where they were and the reasons for the many things they did.

The director employed some storytelling tricks that didn't seem to work for me. The most glaring of which is the slo-mo, speed-up, slo-mo sequences when depicting close up battle scenes. To be more precise: when a Persian is about to get stabbed, the motion slows down, as if to emphasize the entry of the spear head, or slash of the sword and the subsequent splash of blood, the action speeds up considerably while the Spartan aims at another Persian, and when he is about to stab/slash, the motion slows down considerably again, focusing our attention again on the moment of penetration and explosion of blood.

This would have worked had it been the first time I saw it, but the slo-mo, speed up, slo-mo editing to depict a variety of movements is something that is becoming more and more common in contemporary movies, TV, and commercials. I've seen it done numerous times in many other movies. It was cool and different the first time, but today it's just... not again? In short, it is becoming a cliche. And when something becomes a cliche, it becomes a distraction from the storytelling.

Personally, nothing beats just telling it like it is. Witness similar battle scenes in Braveheart and Lord of the Rings, a minimum of slow mo (if any), just letting things happen as they will, and they depict the action more brutally and realistically than any gimmick.

I believe that this will seriously date this film to this time, when such a storytelling trick was in vogue. The modern guitar music, used a few times in the film, although very effective in invoking excitement in contemporary audiences, is another thing that will date the movie, and it's something that nudges it closer to a "pop" movie, than a serious film. Imagine if William Wyler used rock and roll or Motown music in Ben Hur in 1959, it would most likely have thrilled audiences back then... but it would look and sound ridiculous today.

The end of the film reminded me a lot of Braveheart, where armies about to be victorious charge headlong into history, this time without a flying sword. Nevertheless, it was thrilling seeing the thousands upon thousands of Spartans about to go to war. Having seen what 300 could do, the film leaves us to imagine tantalizingly what 10,000 could do.

I didn't come away from the cinema thinking I have just witnessed one of the greatest movies ever made. But it's a great film which will no doubt wow people who have not read the source material. A virtual unknown, director Zack Snyder created a terrific movie out of a terrific comic book. That he respected Miller's work so well may go a long way in assuaging some of the fears that came with news of his directing Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's Watchmen. Let's wait and see! I just hope I see none of that slo-mo, speed up thing there or I'm gonna scream.

The great thing is, as soon as the screening was over, we saw a large group of people mobbing the 300 section of a next door bookstore, who cleverly set it up in anticipation for the reaction that movie will have. Anything that gets people reading comic books is a great thing.

The bad thing about this particular screening is that a bunch of young kids, averaging perhaps 10 years old were in attendance, strangely enough with what seemed to be their school teachers. Expecting perhaps an educational historical movie based on a "comic book", they thought it be OK. I noticed that one of the teachers visibly twitching in his seat as soon as the naked oracle started dancing. One, it only goes to show just how much comics are still regarded for kids in these parts, and two, what's up with the cinema people? 300, rated R-13, those kids should never have been let in.