Listening to: “Escape!” by Philip Glass (The Hours OST)
Was poking around the other day. And I happened on the “300″ movie dvd.
For Honor.For Glory.And a lot of…abs! And pecs! (and a lot of slashing and shouting and more than a dash of nonsense).
Now I did not expect to see something to the effect of “The Hours” or “Children of Men” or even “Gladiator” in terms of acting and story. But still…
I like Frank Miller. I loved “Sin City”, even though I’ll admit that it’s a bit short on the characterization department as well (the absence of “real” women is a bit obvious), but at least, some of them I am able to symphatize with. Not with “300″.
It was visually entertaining to “watch” but a headache in all other categories. Simply put, it’s all sound and fury with no significance, story and character wise. The “King” (with a capital K! if you please!) played by Gerard Butler, seems to find every moment a chance to declaim. There is no trace of sensitivity-or even complexity- in this character (how could there be? it appears that if a baby is “small, or puny” in this very “male” society, it is simply discarded…hmmm..they might have killed all their Einsteins and Thomas Edisons…but who cares? certainly not these Spartans). I almost fell asleep while David Wenham, I mean Dilios, was busy narrating the King’s life (raised to do nothing but bash the skull of his enemies). How he fought a wolf?(or a hyena – it’s hard to tell) single handedly, barefoot and half-naked, a long time ago, one very cold winter night, thus gaining the love and admiration of his people. And let’s not forget Gorgo, the Queen (with a capital Q! as well). Now I love watching “strong woman” characters, but this one seemed to be “rather flat”, I can’t quite tell why though. David Wenham tries hard to put some soul into his character, but result became funny instead of moving. Even when “the captain” – the king’s right hand man – I forgot his name, goes postal at the sight of his son decapitated failed to create a moving scene. I’d prefer Bill Nighy’s interpretation of Davy Jones anytime (which goes to show that even CG characters needs to have a brilliant actor to bring them to “life” – Nighy played Jones with complexity and sensitivity – oops, this is not a PotC review – sorry) to all these -ahem- characters(?). 
Yes, yes, I know its not meant to win any Academy Awards (visual effects probably), but movies need to have “people” in it (be it sci-fi or otherwise, I mean Star Wars seems to endure – the actors are not award-winning either- but they have “character”).
The story was an overy simplistic account of the Battle of Thermopylae. The Greeks apparently here are “boy-lovers” and cowards. The Persians worship a giant-size “drag queen”, I mean God-King, by the name of Xerxes. The Spartans on the other hand are the paragon of male virility (a-hu! a-hu!). Sigh.
I saw “A Scanner Darkly” as well. I rather like it. Rich in character, if anything. I’ll make a pseudo-review maybe someday.
On other things, tomorrow is judgement day. At work. I will find out if I passed the final stage of my training as a call center representative. A “festering turd of a job”. I tell you. I absolutely hate it, it’s a wonder I still manage to pass my weekly evaluations. I can’t seem to find a job I really like, maybe because I have visions of myself as “portrait freelancer” and living the bohemian lifestyle. There are times when I happen to have a chance talk to to interesting people, like that British lass last Saturday. She put me in such a good mood with her dry humour and great accent.
