Is 300 really a good film, or is it just spectacular on HD? - Page 4

I agree. this os one of those rare few I wish I'd pony'd up $12 to see on the big screen at the theater. It's amazing to pay attention to the background of the fight scenes as well as the foreground. It's no Matrix though.

What? You prefer a Transporter trans Natural Born Killers rip off with the sole plot intention to be as disturbing as possible?

I actually am enjoying it for what it is. I can see where it would appeal to the PS3 crowd, and I am not one of them. I enjoy "The Adventures of Robin Hood" as well but I don't see them enjoying that film "so much." The PQ is excellent, regardless what anyone may say, grain, yep, intentional, yep. AQ excellent.

It may not make the "Top Tier" but if I want that I watch Discovery HD.

I couldn't have said it better. Movies like 300, for me, are about kicking back, switching off, and having a good time.

A little bold in your statement there. I watched it the whole way through in the theaters and didn't come away impressed in the slightest bit. I tried to give a second go this past weekend when I rented the BR version. The wife and I couldn't finish it; we were both bored to death.

300 is good movie (if you like this genre... like Gladiator, Troy, etc.) but it is a "comic book adaptation" of the event.... so, it is different but, no, it is not "a Gladiator"...

Agreed


Gladiator different class


I rented it and enjoyed it for what it was but I dont think I will watch it again. Sometimes to much testosterone can be well a bit G#Y

Great soundtrack. stunning visuals, it delivered more then what i was expecting ( and I was already expecting a lot.) I sat back and watch a masterpiece.

but that is just my opinion everyone is entitle to there own

Great demo material even though the picture is intentionally grainy, the audio and action scenes are outstanding, and I and several of my friends wanted to learn more about the actual battle after we watched it, one of a very few films that had me wanting to do RESEARCH after viewing it.

If you want to see how a comic/graphic novel should be brought to the screen then look no further than Sin City and 300.

Great PQ, amazing sound, cheesy dialogue, above average movie, and a fairly entertaining first viewing.

300, to me, is an experience more than a film, which should have plot, interesting characters, and believable dialogue.

I just got the rental..
Can't wait to chk it out

I love animation, I love Zak Snyders previous film, I love Gladiator, I love Frank Miller, I love Sin City.

But 300 did nothing for me. The stylization was interesting for 5 minutes as was the choreography of one fight scene. But I thought the end credits were more entertaining, and then only for a minute.

No buy here or even a rental. A single viewing at the cinema was more than enoug for me.

no accounting for taste I guess. I found it to be spectacular in every aspect and it instantly become one of my favorite movies all all time.

It is pure entertainment. Some movies make you think, some make you feel, some like this one are just fun from start to finish. There is not one minute of this movie I wish I had my time back on.

Sin City, now THAT is a real movie

I liked your the fairness and insight of your question.

300 got a 61% on Rottentomatoes so clearly professional critics came in with mixed or slightly favorable views. Check out these two opposing views for instance:

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
"It is excessively, cheerfully violent -- and it is gorgeous to behold. It looks like the world's most sophisticated and expensive video game, and I mean that in a good way." ...

A.O. Scott, The New York Times
"300 is about as violent as Apocalypto and twice as stupid." ...

I loved Sin City's stylish excess, so 300 - another Frank Miller graphic novel brought gloriously to screen - also swept me away. Stylistically I think 300 is absolutely brilliant in so many ways - a visual and aesthetic masterpiece. I personally found more emotional depth in 300 than in Sin City (but that's hardly a fair comparison because I doubt Sin City aimed for emotive impact.) Storytelling was pretty compelling.

I'm not a gamer, so it's not because 300 feels like a game that I find it compelling. I am drawn to it as visually artful entertainment and I feel it carries a real charge. I've screened it for friends who loved it. I've compared notes with friends who have loved it.

Should it be watched in HD? Absolutely. I did flip the combo disk over to view a few minutes of the DVD side - which looked perfectly fine - but after having already seen the HD DVD pressing I knew what I was missing so I probably can't be objective about whether this film needs HD to "sell" it.

More "Kosmi" comments in another thread.

It really depends on what you look for in films.

I read a lot of novels, and such a reality has led me to care little about story and character depth in movies. In my opinion, no movie can ever express a story as well as a novel that takes 40 hours to read and absorb.

For me, movies are about fun and engaging entertainment. My favorite genre therefore tends to be high-action films. In my eyes, 300 is the pinnacle movie in that genre. It's a film packed full of fast paced action with just enough narration/story to setup the next sequence. Likewise, Gerard Butler does an exception job protraying Frank Miller's Leonidas -- a character that stands for everything a man would like to be (a wise, compassionate, and strong leader that is nearly unstoppable in his endeavors).

I think it's a damn good film, while my wife considers it one of her favorites. In fact, we'll probably be watching it again this evening on her request. It'll also hold a special place in my collection as it was the film that finally led her to approve an HD player purchase.

Whilst I enjoyed the film, it probably means that "Gates of Fire" wont get made for years now.

I am half way through. 300 looks spectacular in HD but I am not sure if the movie can be re-watched.

I agree. I had watched the SD version and now have the HD-DVD, but it really is a plodding type of movie for me. I keep taking breaks every 15 minutes.

I totally disagree.
The good
The movie is gorgeous and the sound was the icing on the cake, it just wrapped me in sweet 5.1 spartan killing sound
The bad
Sure the story was a bit cheesy but i found the actor narrating far more irritating, i could not shake the image of him as a monk in 'Van Helsing'!

Personally, I enjoyed it. Content-wise, four out of five stars. I'd give PQ about the same. SQ five out of five. I saw it on Blu-ray with uncompressed PCM sound, but since the image on both versions is identical and the Dolby TrueHD should sound identical... I'd say that counts for the HD DVD version as well... plus you get the bluescreen image inlay.

300 is a stylized ultra-violent graphic novel adaptation. It is only going to do what it was written to do -- demonstrate stylized violence without much plot.

The acting was ok, the effects were pretty good.

Basically, a typical summer blockbuster in the same vein as Sin City, et al. A great movie? No. An entertaining one? Yes.

For the record, I found Crank to be deliriously vapid and a whole hell of a lot of fun. It never, for a millisecond, takes itself too seriously.

300 is, in the end, a bit too earnest, but I was not underestimating that my appreciation for the film did grow while going through the extras, listening to Frank Miller in particular discuss what shaped his take on the tale. 300 is silly fluff, with a veneer of history over a timeless, hyperbolic tale. I don't even really like the Matrix that much, but the comparison is pretty valid: If the Matrix was all bang and flash with a bit of Descartes thrown in to make it seem more "deep", then this uses history to tell the tale of underdogs overcoming great odds to carve out the winning of a war while losing a particular battle. Wasn't there a Bad News Bears film that told the same tale? Or was that a Mighty Ducks film? Battle of the Bulge? I dunno, they all blend together.

So, to summarize - Crank = silly fluff, kinetic fun that gets bandied by some BD fanboys as the ultimate in PQ, pissing on actual -films- shot on, um -film-.

300 is sillier fluff, taking itself a mite too seriously, but in the end it's as decent as the source material that it slavishly replicates on screen.

Fair?

ps. Gladiator sucked A$$, the worst close-up shot battle scenes with no desire to catch the odd wide shot in recent memory, with the abysmal Transformers being the evil spawn of Scott's bombastic ineptitude.

pps. Now, Spartacus, -theres- how you do dudes in Togas...

The bulk of people who complain about 300 are probably just mad that their abs don't look as good as the ones on their screen.

I loved the movie and I love the HD disc.

300 is a work of historical fiction. It's based on the fact that an army of roughly 300 outwitted a vastly supperior (at least in numbers) foe using wit and strategy. Maybe that's a simplified high-concept pitch, but I find that intriguing. It's enough to make me want to watch the movie. If you consider that short on story, sorry it wasted 117 minutes of your time. As I said, I was entertained. Sometimes when Hollywood throws more story than action in a movie, A.K.A. "The Matrix Reloaded," you like to complain about that too.

By the way, some of the great literary classics can be summed up just as quickly. Hemmingway "The Old Man and the Sea": A man goes fishing for 98 pages, goes home and dies.

I'd really be interested to see what the average age is of people who think this movie is "amazing"...or even calling it "great entertainment," for that matter.

I don't buy it. 300 being good because "sometimes I want to be entertained by movies" makes no sense. So sometimes people watch movies NOT to be entertained? Outside of being force-fed something in a classroom setting, that talking point doesn't hold much water.

I think what people mean is sometimes you just want sit down and watch a fast paced high action movie....i.e. 300 or maybe Transformers.

but other times your in the mood for a good Drama to get you wrapped up in the story line and characters.

people do have moods in their lives and those moods can/will dictate what they will want to watch.

The Pick of Destiny = stupid fun
Pi = pointy-headed, thought-provoking drama

I like both. So, sue me. What kind of movie fan am I? I don't think there are genres of movie fans. I like what I like for different reasons. There's room in this world for every kind of movie, and somebody's going to like it. There's no accounting for taste, and it can't even be argued about.

SPOILER ALERT!!! SPOILER ALERT!!!