EP Review: 300

[eytanz]

What's Rifftrax?

Rifftrax is a group that does MST3K-style commentary soundtracks for movies, that you can download and play while watching. I've only heard one or two but they're pretty good.

http://www.rifftrax.com/

[Unblinking]

What's Rifftrax?

Rifftrax is a group that does MST3K-style commentary soundtracks for movies, that you can download and play while watching. I've only heard one or two but they're pretty good.

http://www.rifftrax.com/

Ooh, that sounds cool!  I hadn't heard of such a thing.  I loved MST3K, so I shall have to check that out.

[Scattercat]

It's all the MST3K guys, too, or at least the latterly ones.  (Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy.)

[stePH]

300 is...interesting. It's very manly and testosteroney and has some issues, but if you want to watch an epic graphic cartoon-style battle, there's nothing else really like it. It's completely ridiculous and oversexed in every way everything Frank Miller's done in the last 20 years (everything I've seen, at least). So if you thought visual style of Sin City was cool, you might dig this. And like Sin City, it does have some great lines.

Frank Miller has done exactly two good books out of all I've seen: Ronin and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.

I've read the whole Sin City and I'll probably watch Hell and Back when it's made into a movie, but I'm unlikely to touch 300

[DKT]

300 is...interesting. It's very manly and testosteroney and has some issues, but if you want to watch an epic graphic cartoon-style battle, there's nothing else really like it. It's completely ridiculous and oversexed in every way everything Frank Miller's done in the last 20 years (everything I've seen, at least). So if you thought visual style of Sin City was cool, you might dig this. And like Sin City, it does have some great lines.

Frank Miller has done exactly two good books out of all I've seen: Ronin and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.

I've read the whole Sin City and I'll probably watch Hell and Back when it's made into a movie, but I'm unlikely to touch 300

I liked Batman: Year One and Daredevil: Born Again both quite a bit. Daredevil: The Man Without Fear was alright, too, except it definitely felt like Daredevil: Year One.

But yeah, all that stuff came out in the late 80s/early 90s, right? He's definitely got an interesting visual style, but it's been a while since he's told a story I cared about.

[yicheng]

Ugh!  I hated this movie and actually had to turn it off half-way through.  There are so many cringe-worthy factual errors and the movie itself was 90% softcore gay porn and 10% neo-con political dogma. 

[Unblinking]

90% softcore gay porn and 10% neo-con political dogma. 

I think that's verbatim from the movie poster.   

[stePH]

Frank Miller has done exactly two good books out of all I've seen: Ronin and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.

I've read the whole Sin City and I'll probably watch Hell and Back when it's made into a movie, but I'm unlikely to touch 300

I liked Batman: Year One and Daredevil: Born Again both quite a bit. Daredevil: The Man Without Fear was alright, too, except it definitely felt like Daredevil: Year One.

But yeah, all that stuff came out in the late 80s/early 90s, right? He's definitely got an interesting visual style, but it's been a while since he's told a story I cared about.

Oh, damn... forgot Batman: Year One; that was okay too. But it was no Ronin.

[Sgarre1]

I always have to mention ELEKTRA:ASSASSIN.  I'm not even a big Frank Miller Fan (BATMAN: YEAR ONE and DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN are the absolute hits for me - although I enjoyed DARK KNIGHT RETURNS at the time it was coming out, maturity hasn't been kind to my opinion of that book - it's got some good stuff, don't get me wrong).  But ELEKTRA: ASSASSIN is just...indescribable?  Amazing?  Totally unlike anything he's done before or since (I assume - I couldn't take  SIN CITY or HARD BOILED or MARTHA WASHINGTON)?  It's just the right mix of gonzo action, surreal humor and cartoonish extremism.  Bill Sienkiewicz is as responsible as Miller for this being the bizarre classic it is. Those panels of Nick Fury testing the Big Gun or John Garrett strapped to an enormous sewing machine just crack me up every time.  And yet Elektra's face-off against the cyborg assassin and The Beast is just pure comic-book action and amazingly written.  All the other titles mentioned may be more popular but ELEKTRAA: ASSASSIN is some kind of lost gem only for the adventurous.

[Fenrix]

Wow this review aged very poorly. It fine as a relic blog post from the time, but as a film review it fails to deliver.

Also from an interview with the director (emphasis mine):

Interviewer: In the film, a tiny bunch of European freedom fighters hold off a huge army of Iranian slaves. Everyone is sure to be translating this into contemporary politics.

Snyder: Someone asked me, "Is George Bush Leonidas or Xerxes?" I said, "That's an awesome question." The fact they asked tells me that this movie can mean one thing to one person and something totally different to another. I clearly didn't mean either. I was just trying to get Frank's book made into a movie.