300 (movie)

[Elok]

Hmm, not bad Drake, but you've done better trolls.

[Jaakko]

What's with the shouts of Freedom? I thought the movie was about Spartans, not Young Republicans' leather speedo convention.

[BeBMan]

I read it opened pretty successful in the US. But it starts only in early april here....

For those who have seen it - would you recommend it at least or are the dumb parts indeed so bad that I should rather avoid watching it?

[Darius871]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
I think you're the one grappling with your latent homosexuality, not the producers of this movie. You've already said gay men come on to you more than straight women; they're obviously seeing what you can't yet admit to yourself. Why don't you just come out? You're turning into one of those repressed homosexuals that criticize anything even vaguely homoerotic in order to prove how straight they are. It's lame, dude...

Phew, glad somebody said this so I didn't have to. There may be legitimate criticisms to make about this film, but Elok's fixating on implied homoeroticism is very telling.

I take it the scantily clad men in Apocalypto were a sign of Mel Gibson's latent "oily man-muscle fetish" too?

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by BeBro
I read it opened pretty successful in the US. But it starts only in early april here....

For those who have seen it - would you recommend it at least or are the dumb parts indeed so bad that I should rather avoid watching it?

It's dumb, but entertaining, and looks good an a big screen.

[Elok]

Try to criticize more proactively, Darius.

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by BeBro
I read it opened pretty successful in the US. But it starts only in early april here....

For those who have seen it - would you recommend it at least or are the dumb parts indeed so bad that I should rather avoid watching it?

Just ask yourself whether the various flaws in the movie would really bother you.

At least a dozen grotesquely mutant humanoid monsters of some sort appear in the movie with no apparent explanation.

Nearly all of the combatants are apparently normal humans but the persian immortals wear grotesque metal masks and a scene in which one has his mask knocked off seems to imply that they are all badly disfigured/diseased/ mutated or something.

The Spartans look like they were planning for a day of fun at the beach rather than a battle as they only use a helmet, a shield and a spear and are otherwise basically fighting almost naked. I was never convinced that they looked at all like ancient Spartan fighters.

You generally only see the action from so close that only a bare handful of combatants is visible on screen at a time and nearly all of the fighting occurs out of formation.

I'd say if you like watching bloody melee on the big screen and don't mind any of the flaws mentioned in this thread you should go see it otherwise skip it.

I'm glad I saw it. I've never seen a movie with a look quite like it but I do wish the flaws listed had been less of a distraction.

[LordShiva]

Speaking of the Immortals battle scene,

Spoiler:

I love how the Spartans spent a whole day building a wall out of dead Persians, and then pushed the piled up bodies down onto ONE Immortal. And it didn't even kill him, he just looked up, said "Er... WTF?" and took a couple steps back.

[Drake Tungsten]

Try to criticize more proactively, Darius.

We're not criticizing. We're trying to help you.

[Darius871]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
We're not criticizing. We're trying to help you.

Pfft, speak for yourself.

[Drake Tungsten]

Why would you criticize him for being gay? The gays are awesome...

[Darius871]

It's not the gaydom I criticize, it's the self-repression.

Gays
Lesbians
Closeted Phobes
Lesbians

[The Emperor Fabulous]

Apparently, none of you see the REAL purpose:

Iranian official lashes out at Hollywood movie "300" for insulting Persian civilization

An Iranian official on Sunday lashed out at the Hollywood movie "300" for insulting the Persian civilization, local Fars News Agency reported.

Javad Shamqadri, an art advisor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, accused the new movie of being "part of a comprehensive U.S. psychological war aimed at Iranian culture", said the report.

Shamqadri was quoted as saying "following the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Hollywood and cultural authorities in the U.S. initiated studies to figure out how to attack Iranian culture," adding "certainly, the recent movie is a product of such studies."

The movie's effort wound be fruitless, because "values in Iranian culture and the Islamic Revolution are too strongly seated to be damaged by such plans", said the Iranin official.

Shamqadri, who is also a filmmaker, said that production of more domestic and artistic films which portray Iranian achievements is a proper response to movies like "300".

"300," an ancient epic about the famous Battle of Thermopylae in Greek history, set a new record at the box office in North America this weekend.

The Warner Bros. adaptation of the 480 B.C. battle took an estimated 70 million U.S. dollars in its debut weekend, according to figures released on Sunday by Los Angeles-based box office track firm Media by Numbers.

The R-rated film, based on comic book writer Frank Miller's graphic novel, tells the story that an army of 300 Spartan warriors led by their king Leonidas fought to the death to delay a massive Persian army's invasion, so that the Greeks could reorganize a counterattack.

[DinoDoc]

Damn that Heroditus! I had no idea he was in the employ of the US government.

[Sprayber]

The History channel had a pretty good show the other night about the battle using a similar visual style as the movie but not protraying the Persians as mutants or anything. It went on to talk about the Athenian fleet as well that was operating in the same area against the numerically superior Persian fleet.