Sunday, March 11, 2007

King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) charges against his Persian enemies.

"There’s no reason why we can’t be civil." Funniest line in the movie, if you know what was going on in that particular scene. Anyways, I watched 300 on Friday (in IMAX, I might add), and in terms of what I thought before my opinions were slightly tarnished by the reviews I read on RottenTomatoes.com, that movie kicked ass! Excuse me for sounding like a sadistic SOB, but the way that all the slaughtering of the Persians were portrayed on screen, was pure masterpiece. Okay, I may be exaggerating a bit...but the Battle of Thermopylae sure looked awesome! The biggest highlight took place during the first clash between the Spartans and the Persians. There was a long, continuous shot of King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) mowing his way through the enemy, and in slow motion we watched him easily dispatch Persians left and right on his path (see pic above). Again, excuse my sadism (and cheesiness...as well as repetitiveness), but it was poetry in motion watching the Persian hordes getting slice-and-diced so effortlessly by Leonidas and Company. Pure masterpiece. And I’m sorry, but the movie wouldn’t have rocked as much if we didn’t see soldiers getting impaled by spears so clearly on the big screen. Thank you, visual effects. The actors playing the Spartans were actually jabbing at nothing during filmmaking (obviously)... The unlucky Persians who felt the wrong end of the spear were added digitally during post. And don’t forget that earlier shot in the movie where we see those Emperor Palpatine lookalikes—err, Mystics—watching that Oracle (Kelly Craig) gyrate while predicting the fate of Leonidas’ army, if it confronted Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his forces. Did you know that shot was filmed underwater? Awesome. 300 made $70 million in North America alone on opening weekend (while the film itself cost 'only' $65 mil to make)?? It’s a masterpiece, I tellz ya. So what is my opinion now that I read some of the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes? I forgot.

The Oracle (Kelly Craig).  This shot was filmed underwater.

EDIT: Did anyone watch tonight’s episode of The Simpsons? That Lord of the Rings spoof with Bart and Lisa in that cardboard castle was pure, um...masterpiece. Might as well overuse that word before I end this entry. Later.

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