Last night, I drove to Redwood City to hang out with my friend/coworker Ethan and his friends. We watched Frank Miller's 300 at the AMC. My review is below:
I was impressed by how faithful the movie stayed to the original source material. Of course, I'm referring to the graphic novel, not Herodotus or any other historical spin doctor. Although, I should point out that there were lines (albeit modernized) lifted straight out of Plutarch. One such example is King Leonidas' slightly cheesy "come get them" line, which actually translates to Molon Labe, or Μολὼν ΛαβÎ. Another example is Stelios' line "then we'll fight in the shade," which was attributed to a guy named Dienekes by Herodotus and was in response to reports that Persian arrows could blot out the sun.
But I digress, the film expands upon the graphic novel's battle sequences by including ninja orcs (in the comic, the Immortals were assumed to be masked humans), rhinos, soldiers with bombs, a musical goat, and an executioner with swords for hands. They also added a subplot involving Queen Gorgo and Theron (the latter wasn't in the comic) to pad the movie length and give the audience a break in the action.
All in all, 300 can be considered a faithful adaptation to a graphic novel which used highly stylized visuals and a wacky interpretation of Herodotus to tell a macho story. Like Narnia, the screenplay didn't remove very much content, but they definitely added new scenes.
Lastly, the rumors are true: after you watch the movie, you'll have the urge to jump around and kill things. Make sure you have a copy of Dynasty Warriors on hand when you get home.
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