300

Today I went to see 300, going in having no expectations of liking or caring about it. The sole reason I wanted to see it was for the visual style. The movie was shot in the same manner as Sin City, in that the sets were quite minimal and bluescreen was heavily used to create vistas, landscapes and backdrops.

The story was actually decent, though the writing itself left a little to be desired (case in point, the whole subplot with the queen and the councillor is quite useless and really adds nothing) and the direction was very cool and stylized (the pans, slow motion, angles and so on were quite cool). Overall I'd have to give it a passing grade, though barely... while there was action going on all was well, but as soon as it moved away from that things got very tedious very quickly and frankly got boring. I do think I enjoyed it more than I did Sin City, the film to which it will chiefly be compared.

Check your head at the door, don't worry about knowing too much about the actual Battle of Thermopylae, and just enjoy the thing if you see it. It's mindless at best, sappy and cheesy at the end, but there are some decent bits in the middle.

I had also intended to see either The Number 23 or Zodiac today, but I couldn't convince anyone else to tag along so I saw neither. I do have plans to see Zodiac next week. Mmmm, David Fincher flicks.