Critique The Critic

Chris Vogner from the Dallas Morning News critiques the recently released to DVD movie 300 in this review. Vogner's views about the move very much relate to my own feelings about the movie. He talks about the "wristwatch rule"

The earlier you look at your watch (or cellphone), the less engaged you are by what you're seeing on the screen.

This is actually a really good point. I guess I never realized how much you check your watch when you're bored with a movie. However I had no feelings like these during the movie. This movie is one of my new favorites. I heard many good things about it before I saw it. So without even previously seeing it, I bought it and I was not disappointed. Chris also relates the cinematography to the very similar Sin City. I ,however, have never seen the entire movie. You know how it goes, bits and pieces. But the similarities are unmistakable. Chris Vogner also talks about the grotesque fight scenes that are VERY entertaining. Who does not enjoy a good blood splatter scene? The action is non stop. The way it is filmed is shot not only intensifies the fight scenes, it makes them more gory and more entertaining.

A digitized cornucopia of craggy mountains, dark clouds, soaring arrows, decapitations and hand-to-hand combat that would make an Ultimate Fighting Champion quiver in fear, 300 is enough to mobilize the pulse of adult teenagers everywhere.

This movie is not only amazing to watch. It is based on a true story, which Vogner comments on, that is also a remake of a previous movie, The 300 Spartans, but it is nothing like it; Vogner says welcome to the 21st century. Vogner comments on how the backgrounds are extremely fake looking if you actually look at them. I didn't realize this while I was watching but can understand how it would look like that since the whole thing was digitized but it in no way did it detract from the movie. Vogner describes the stylized fighting scenes that take up the majority of the movie.

But the bulk of the movie is devoted to highly stylized combat. Spears and swords tear into flesh. Persian elephants go flying off cliffs. Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), a hairless, effeminate chap who makes Leonidas look even more manly by comparison, sends wave after wave of fighters against the Spartans, only to see them punctured and hacked to bits.

This was what made this movie so great in my opinion. It shows very intense scenes that could very much be realistic, in my opinion, for that time period. Unlike current war movies about recent wars, it shows true bravery and intense combat. Recent war movies are just straight up gory and sad. This film creates the feeling of true bravery. After seeing the movie I didn't feel like crying or an overall feeling of sadness. Honestly I felt like I could kill someone and wanted to just own a guy in a fight. That's a feeling you don't normally get from a movie. Anyway, I think Chris Vogner did a decent job of critiquing this film and creating the feeling and attitudes from this film.