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300
Going to the city to see a movie has always been a special treat, but, with Sudbury being a 6 hour roundtrip from my home on the island, it really sucks to travel all that way to see a crappy movie. With the exception of Casino Royale (boo cliff-hangers), I'd have to say that crap is all that Hollywood was capable producing during the second half of 2006, heck, all of 2006 was pretty damn dry move-wise.
In fact, the only movies I particularly remember enjoying were Dead Man's Chest (double boo cliff-hangers), Clerks II and V for Vendetta.
2007 was starting to look pretty darn sparse as well. Ok, the trailers for Spiderman 3 were sorta interesting, but the first two Spidermans were just alright, so there's no reason to expect the third to be anything special, even if it does have Venom. Another movie based on one of my favorite Marvel comics, Ghost Rider, is scheduled for release next month, but for some reason my "bad comic book movie sense" is tingling, so this one is still a wait and see. The new trailer for Fantastic Four 2 isn't anything really special, even if the Silver Surfer has always been one of my favorite characters, I just can't see Mr. Radd's personality getting translated to the silver screen, especially if they focus on his "early enslaved to galactic evil" days.
There was a bit of stir on Digg over the new Transformers movie trailer, which perhaps shows a little potential, but it's another "give me a good story to go with all those effects and I might be interested, so this 2007 that I'm remaining sceptical about.
While looking for the Transformers trailer I stumbled on to a movie that based on a comic that I hadn't heard of before called "300". "What an odd name for a movie", I thought, so I watched the trailer and then I did something that I don't recall ever doing before, I watched it again, shivers running down my spine, thinking to myself "Holy (expletive deleted) this could be the greatest movie ever!!!"
So, what is "300"? Well, it's actually another comic/graphic novel to big screen translation, however, this time it's based on a Frank Miller (creator of my top movie pick of 2005, "Sin City", which actually ranks in my top 3 or 4 movies of all time) comic book series from the late 90's of the same name, which went on to be published as a graphic novel.
The story is dramatised re-telling of the Battle of Thermopylae, in which the Spartan King Leonidas I led a group of 300 Spartan soldiers against the invading Persian army of "Xerxes the Great" (the original, not the XERXES who was usurped by SHODAN in System Shock 2), which was said to be over 1,000,000 men strong. At this point I am tempted to talk more about the historical accounts of the Battle of Thermopylae, but I'd rather not ruin a single page of this story for those who may be unfamiliar with one of the most fascinating battles in history. Let's just say that the line that divides winners and losers can only be viewed in the context of the whole war, not just a single battle.
What really blew me away was the visual look of the movie, while different than Sin City, the trailer manages to capture and evolve the visual magic that made that movie so special. I got the distinct feeling that this is what "Troy" and "Alexander" should have been; of course, we'll have to wait to March to see if relatively new director Zack Snyder and Frank Miller have managed to create a winner. Optimism is high, so are expectations, this one will really have to shine to earn my accolades, but shine like a Hoplite's xiphos it just might!
Posted by Dylon on January 3, 2007 10:21 PM |
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Wow! We're going to Sudbury tomorrow for a day trip. I was hoping to take my students to Science North or to catch a flick (as well as go shopping for more games for our PS2!) I'm such a geek!! LOL!
I'm curious to see 300. I'm a F. Miller fan and it's funny because you either have to love his work or hate it. There really is no in between. My brother and his wife said Sin City was the most horrible movie they had ever seen. In fact, they muttered a few more choice words! They were upset that they "wasted" all that money on a movie they hated. My younger brother and I, however, really LOVED that movie. I thought the cinematography was very well done. I just thought it was wonderful! Ah well.
BTW, I grew up watching Transformers on TV and in the movies. My very first Transformer figure I owned was Bumblebee. I cried when I thought we'd never ever see Optimus Prime again. My brother has an impressive collection of Transformers :)
Funny, we're heading over to Sudbury for a day trip tomorrow as well! I guess that Sin City just appealed to my sense of black comedy, as well as being one of the most amazing visual movies ever.
Oh ya, I had a great collection of Transformers growing up, I think that my first was the one that had the amazing power to turn into a deadly portable cassette player (Soundwave). The tape cassette that turned into a deadly bird (Buzzsaw) was the best part, I even remember have a knockoff Transformer that turned into a jaguar and it seems to me that there were other legit cassettes as well, something like Frenzy and Laserbeak (who looked remarkably like Buzzsaw)
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My best friend had the first Megatron that turned into a gun, I was always jealous! (LOL)
No way!! That's hillarious! My brother's first Transformer was that evil Soundwave!!! I loved turning the cassette into Buzzsaw! I was always amazed! My brother also had the knockoff version. I think he had he knockoff before he got the real Soundwave.
I had Megatron and Optimus Prime too. When we were in NYC for Christmas a few years ago, my brother scouted all over downtown NY for a version of Optimus Prime that was limited edition. There were only 2 of them left in NY and he got one. My parents thought we were insane since my brother's in his late 20's and still collecting Transformers! LOL! Who knows. He said they'll be worth some money eventually- especially if the boxes are unopened.
April 2008