Not A Bad Start

By: daforce
Date: Wednesday, March 07, 2007

I saw this last night. I've read Frank Miller's graphic novel too.

Zack Snyder beefs up Queen Gorgon's role a bit more in the movie (because let's face it, without a little extra story, this movie would have been an hour long). The only problem with the extra story is that it doesn't blend too well with Miller's original storyline. At least the first 20 minutes of it anyway (honestly, you'll think the movie's bad in the first 20 min., but stick with it, cause it gets a whole lot better). On it's own, the Snyder part of the story in the latter half isn't too bad, but I know I've seen it somewhere before, I just can't quite put my finger on it.

The fight sequences are great, although it looks like the clip I saw at Wondercon was changed a bit. Instead of seeing the King fighting (in the clip I saw, you could see him from head to toe during the entire scene), every now and then they zoom in for a closeup on a part of the frame, and then zoom back out again. A little disjointing and jarring at first, but you get used to it. At least it's not the stupid shaky-cam from Gladiator.

My other gripe about the movie is the use of Dilios, and the actor portraying him (David Wenham). The graphic novel is supposed to be a story being told by Dilios, a Spartan, who was at the Hot Gates with the King and the other 300. He has a gift for storytelling, he's boisterous, and he's the one that lifts the men's spirits by telling them tales of the King's youth and exploits, and he embellishes his stories.

This is where Zack Snyder strayed too far from the source material and missed a golden opportunity that was quite literally laid out before him. In the movie, Dilios is a soldier, but his gift of storytelling isn't even mentioned until the end. And even then, the actor portraying Dilios doesn't have the charm, charisma, nor even a unique voice to carry off the role in a convincing tone (especially since he is the narrator of the movie). If the narration tone of the book was followed throughout the movie, rather than in fits and starts throughout, this movie would have been a classic.

The one thing Snyder DID get right was the message of the orginal story that Miller wrote. It's about the price of freedom, the nobility in doing the right thing when others won't, not compromising your ideals or your morals no matter what the odds, brotherhood, and most importantly fighting for justice and not frivolity or vanity. Also remember, Miller wrote this story almost a decade before 9/11, so there's no deliberate correlation between today's events and the events portrayed in the movie.

Unfortunately, the majority of the audience are going to walk away only thinking about how cool it was when that guy's leg squirted blood when it was chopped off in slow motion.


Rating: Full price ticket at least once.

Click here to read the staff review by Mania.