Mar. 9th, 2007
I went to see 300 this evening with
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Loved it.
Okay, first of all, I loved the comic and read it thoroughly enough to think I understood what Frank Miller was trying to do. Artistically and conceptually amazing, about how storytelling reshapes history, and how history creates values. I don't like all Frank Miller's work, but I loved this one.
And I'm totally fascinated by Spartan history, and it really captured that spirit. The Spartans were terrifying in their inhumanity, and breathtaking in their courage.
It works better as a graphic novel than as a movie, granted, but I loved the movie quite thoroughly. It isn't an intellectual movie, it's totally visceral. Turn off your brain, be prepared to shut your eyes. I actually didn't shut my eyes much, the violence was too stylized to be bothersome. They added a subplot about Gorgo and the traitor Spartan, probably because the plot was a little thin. The best dialogue was straight from the graphic novel, lines like, from Xerxes, "Cruel Leonidas demanded that you stand. I require only that you kneel."
Then there's David Wenham. And Gerard Butler's thighs, backed by by 299 other sets of manly thighs. If I ever see Gerard Butler in anything ever again, it will be disappointing if he is clothed.
Random Quest...
Mar. 9th, 2007 09:16 pmLast night I watched Random Quest with
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It's Samuel West, which is a point in its favour. It co-stars Shaun Parke, whom I adore. It's based on a story by John Wyndham, one of my favourite SF authors - though I never read the original story. So is it a good story?
It's visually terrific. Costumes and set were great.
The script... thin. The story... not exactly compelling. It's about a physicist, Colin Trafford, who by accident is slipped into a parallel world where he's a successful science fiction writer married to a doctor. His double in that world was something of a cad, and unfaithful to his wife, while our hero falls in love with her and wants to repair the damage. But he's zapped back to his original life and wants to find his world's version of the woman he loves.
I couldn't see that she had much character. But then, neither did he - neither was very developed, and the suspense wasn't very suspenseful, and since a similar story has been written and produced in various forms since it was written in the 1960s, it didn't seem fresh.
The art director deserves a medal, though.