Dining in Hell - 300 reviewed
Frank Miller’s 300 had my money several times over from the moment I heard it was going to be made. Then came the trailer and I nearly came in my pants several times over (I know not a pretty vision but at least I’m being truthful). Then I shared the trailer with Stathi and Christos and while I thought I was excited, these guys were even more excited about this movie than I was. Honestly between the three of us we’ve probably seen the trailer like 3000 times.
I can’t count the number of times we’ve quoted the lines:
“Blasphemy? Madness? THIS IS SPAAARTAAA!”
So to say that we were completely hyped for the movie is a slight understatement. So how do we celebrate this momentous occasion of the release of 300? We book the top section of Everyman cinema in Hampstead (much more about this glorious cinema theatre in a moment) and pack it with 40 something Greeks. To say there was a bit of atmosphere in the theatre, is once again a slight understatement. Half of us screamed the above line when Leonidas said it.
The Venue
It’s strange but one of the things that annoys me about cinemas is that the experience seems to have been diluted. I’m talking in a general sense here. It’s no longer something special, it’s no longer something that is truly an experience in every sense of the world. Thank god someone remembered this and made the Everyman Cinema in Hampstead, North London. Basically it’s very small little venue however there are different levels of seating throughout all of which are larger than usual, with little tables to the side of them. The side seats are leather with foot rests and all of them have champagne bottle holders. The ambience in there is amazing. Seriously I kept looking at just how beautiful the place was and how great all the colours worked together seamlessly. The screen isn’t the largest, the sound isn’t this amazing THX (at least I don’t think it is) but it’s definitely one of the best cinema’s I’ve ever been to. This enhanced this movies completely for me even further than if I watched it in your run of the mill movie theatre.
The movie itself
In case you missed my review over at Splash Panel, go and have a read about the actual graphic novel itself first of which this movie is based upon. This isn’t a movie based on a myth, this is a movie based incredibly faithfully on a graphic novel that is based on history. Keep that little fact in mind when watching this movie. It’s not supposed to be historically accurate. It’s meant to be a man movie.
“A new age has begun. An age of freedom, and all will know that 300 Spartans gave their last breathe to defend it.”
The story is a timeless one, depicting one of the greatest if not most important battles in history, completely stylised of course with loads of magicians and huge monsters people and weird freaks, however believe it or not it’s not the story that counts here but how it is delivered. You see this story has been told several times before, however never like this. Some of the fight scenes in here are some of the most brutal you’ve ever seen in a swords and sandals epic. Forget all the rubbish that is Troy and Alexander and open your eyes to 2 minutes of pure Spartan maddness cutting through one guy after the other. Then chilling out and eating an apple over the dead. It’s meant to be over the top. It’s meant to be completely manly in nature. The dialogue just drips of testosterone and I think that’s one of it’s greatest qualities. You don’t get enough movies where the guys are completely hard as nails.
A distinct success of the movie was use of colour filters throughout the movie. From the soft yellows used for Sparta to the blues used for scenes with the Immortals. The darker browns used for the fight scenes made the red capes sand out even more. Make no mistake this movie isn’t for everyone (although I wish it was). For a start it’s an 18, which means this movie is violent, has got scenes of a sexual nature (read: soft porn) but there isn’t any real swearing as Miller didn’t really have any of that in his book.
My gripes
I’ll get this out of the way quickly so that we can move on. There were not that many, in fact there was probably only one gripe of which I didn’t hear it in the trailer but basically they chose to pronounce the name of the single most important character in the movie incorrectly. I am of course talking about Kind Leonidas. It is not LEO-N-EYE-DIS, the proper pronounciation of the name is actually LEO-NEE-DAS. It’s a pretty simple thing that I honestly wish they would have gotten any Greek boy from the nearest restaurant to tell them how to get it right phonetically. Of course this could NEVER ruin the overall experience which was pure magic.
The Casting
I’ve got to say that the casting in most cases (except for Leonidas’s son, who thankfully had nothing to say) was completely inspired. Gerard Butler was an AWESOME. Gerard held your attention completely. His voice was worth EVERY penny they paid him as he truly made you believe in the Spartan way. Never retreat, never surrender.
The choices Vincent Regan for the Captain and David Wenham for Dilios were also chosen very well. I loved Lena Headey as the Queen, that was also pretty damn inspired casting. However for me the surprise casting was for that of Xerxes; I have NO idea how the hell they managed to make Rodrigo Santoro actually look like Xerxes but it’s incredibly impressive stuff.
The Details
The icing on the cake for me however was definitely the ending credits. See that’s the level of love and attention that’s gone into this. Basically for the end credits they’ve taken Frank Miller’s panels and basically given them a bit of a 3D effect treatment of the blood being splattered everywhere. Truly awesome stuff and it was great to see such reverence to the source material itself.
From a comic book point of view it was completely faithful to the style. The additional areas were actually very very well done. The scenes with the Queen showed just how hard she was. It was an welcome addition to the story while I am a purist in these things I think if it’s scenes that don’t take away from the actual original source material then I have no problems with it at all.
Final Word
This is not intended for a girlie night in, or people who enjoy movies light the Princess Bride or some such rubbish. You’re here to see Spartans kicking ass and talking names. You will probably not see as stylish a movie for a very long time. You see it’s a complete an utter epic. Epic in scope and epic in the way that it portrays everything. From the tumbling arrows that blot out the sun, to the amazing scenes with the ships crashing down and the Spartans overlooking the devestation, ripped directly out of the book and shown in motion.
Wow! That is one killer theater. I wish we have ones like that around here.
Loved your review, I’ll be sending people here from now on.
↓ Quote | 24/3/2007
Oh, now I’ve totally got to see that movie. I just wish I could find a theater as plush as that one you went to.
↓ Quote | 24/3/2007
i liked the movie but was actually a little disappointed with a couple things.
1) where did all the blood go? think about it. they were slaughtering thousands of people, digital blood was everywhere… yet their swords were clean as a whistle, their bodies were covered only in sweat (until they did makeup in later shots) and the ground was bare of the hundreds of gallons of blood it should have been soaked with. this really annoyed me as it was a rather huge detail that should have been seen to by the effects team.
2) the narration was pretty annoying at times, i understand that snyder wanted to keep with miller’s vision, but still. narration isn’t always necessary when the on-screen action speaks for itself.
3) persians aren’t too happy about the film… justifiably so. i haven’t read miller’s graphic novel and would really love to.. but if snyder stuck closely to his tale then miller seemingly didn’t get it all right. the most glaring thing being that in the persian empire there were little to no slaves yet alone monstrous freaks. i play footie with quite a few persian guys and they were all pretty upset about the portrayal of their ancient culture. especially given the unfortunate coinciding current events swirling around the USA and Iran.
other than all that it was very enjoyable, i kinda hoped that leonidas could have done a bit more than cut xerxes’ cheek at the end after all that. but still good stuff, i can’t wait to see what snyder does with the watchmen.
↓ Quote | 24/3/2007
I remember reading a production log about the pronunciation of Leonidas. They actually consulted a bunch of linguistics experts and decided to go against their advice. In my opinion, LEO-N-EYE-DIS sounds more manly than LEO-NEE-DAS even if it is incorrect. Movie still rocked (that theater kicks ass too!).
↓ Quote | 25/3/2007
I had the exact same pre-movie experience as you. Me an four of my friends had this trailer on basically constant repeat. We went to watch it last night and were stunned. If you did not get the THX or equivalent sound, then it is worth going back just for that. The sound of Leonidas voice could turn anybody into a spartan.
↓ Quote | 25/3/2007
I too, loved 300. I ducked out of an afternoon of panels at SXSW to go see it. It’s right up there with the other Greek war epics: Gladiator, Troy and HBO’s Rome.
↓ Quote | 25/3/2007
300 was amazing…though i was disappointed by the Queens speech. It didn’t pack any punch, had no power behind it, it was just…there. But aside from those…5 minutes, i was highly entertained and can’t wait for the unrated DVD.
↓ Quote | 25/3/2007
Good review. Sounds like you’re into the ancient epics like myself. I was so pumped for the movie that a bunch of friends and I went to the opening night screening (a Thursday night at midnight). I hadn’t gone to the theatres to see anything in quite a while before that, since nothing really piqued my interest. I’m glad I went to see 300 though.
PURE TESTOSTERONE. That’s how I’d describe it. There were some weak parts and I’m not terribly certain I liked the portrayal of the Persians. It felt too much like Lord of the Rings in certain parts (I’m sure you know what I mean). Also, those Spartans hardly put up a fight after they were surrounded. There was like an hour of fighting and losing hardly a single man while they all died in a matter of a minute or two after they were surrounded.
Still, it was one of the only movies that I’ve even considered seeing twice in theatres.
Oh and that theatre you were at looks amazing. Champagne bottle holders?! We aren’t even allowed alcohol at the theatres here.
↓ Quote | 25/3/2007
You might be interested in this review by Gary Brecher the War Nerd. He has some nice things to say about the Greeks as military giants. The Spartans, not so much…
I saw the movie and liked it, though I take Brecher’s point about brains over braun to heart.
↓ Quote | 25/3/2007
until you’ve seen it on a giant IMAX screen, as i have been
very lucky to do, you haven’t seen it at all!!!!
great review though.
↓ Quote | 27/3/2007
Oi! I really enjoyed 300, (except for the second-half back-at-the-ranch stuff), can’t wait for the DVD, AND I THINK THE PRINCESS BRIDE IS ONE COOL MOVIE.
Dear God in Heaven, the Everyman has changed since I was last in it.
↓ Quote | 28/3/2007
Ahh, Princes Bride…
(just kidding K).
↓ Quote | 29/3/2007
This film was just an artistic tour de force. Phenomenal. It took a huge amount of money the first weekend it opened in the states which surprised me since I thought it wouldn’t be so mainstream.
The trailer was fantastically designed to maddeningly whet your appetite and the choice of Nine Inch Nails as its soundtrack was inspired (’Just like you imagined’ from the 1999 album ‘Fragile’).
Nice website and blog.
↓ Quote | 4/4/2007