300
Posted by Lanea on Tuesday, March 20th, 2007
300 by Frank Miller, and 300, by Frank Miller, Zack Snyder, Lynn Varley, and some other blokes.
Comic books are good. Frank Miller’s comic books (I’m not going to mess with the "graphic novel" distinction today) are better than most. We finally got a copy of 300 this Christmas, so I snagged it once Scott had read it. The artwork is what most expect from Miller–evocative, strong, violent, dark. The story is essentially a mythologization of the Battle of Thermopylae–Miller wasn’t shooting for historical accuracy. I like it.
The film is, well, a movie made from a comic book. It’s not historically accurate, and it’s not supposed to be. Leonidas, interestingly enough, is a Scot this time around. All of the Spartan soldiers are ridiculously sculpted. The Persians don’t look very much like Persians. It’s loud, violent, testosterone-laden eye-candy made using similar techniques to those used in Sin City. Some of the lines are leaden, some are unintentionally hilarious. But I like it. Not everything has to be Jane Austen.
Filed in Books,Film | One response so far
Thornyon 22 Mar 2007 at 1:30 am 1Dude, I’ve been on a total comics kick lately. A lot of it is catching up on what’s going on in all my favorite titles – we couldn’t find a good comics shop when we moved to Madison almost six years ago now (holy cow! six years!), and so we kind of fell off the bandwagon. But I’ve discovered the local library carries all kinds of trade paperback compilations, so… whee!
This returning to it has been great fun – lots of JLA for starters, and a bit of The Flash and Teen Titans (not the one based on the Cartoon Network series). From there I’m not sure where I’ll head, but I’ve been loving it so far.
Not really germaine to 300, but… you said “comics”, so I had to share. grin.