Sometimes amazing, sometimes just "creepy." What works, what doesn't. How does this use of computer technologies compare to its early counterpart, Tron?
300 is an intriguing visual film. The special effects and film meld together so well to create a visual style exactly parallel to the actual graphic novel the film was based on. The colors are muted in some shots and in other shots the reds and yellows are blown out, creating a mood that fits with the storyline. I think this film is similar to Tron in some respects. Both films had appropriate settings and effects for their time and content. Tron's CG components all matched the story line. If one were to enter the computer world in the 80's, I believe whole heartily that the cinematography in Tron is what it would look like. Even when Kevin Flynn gets "scanned" into the computer, he gets scanned one line at a time, which hilariously imitates the old printers of the time. On a side note, that is why I don't think a modern Tron could ever work. What would the contemporary computer world look like? I think the Matrix trilogy has shown what the computer world would look like in modern times. Though it is easy to get sidetracked on Tron, we have to get back to 300. If another comparison was to be made with 300, the prior film based off of a Frank Miller graphic novel , Sin City. Sin City was visually stunning as well, again a majority of the shots matching the frames of the graphic novel. One of the major differences though is Sin City felt more like a comic book in theme and style and it worked. What was great about Sin City was the characters were as flat as the shots. They were as black and white as the shots as well. Again, no character went through any character arch, or changed in any way. The perfect example of this is the Bruce Willis story. He saves the same girl from the same guy when he and she were young as he does in the end of the film. The problem with 300 is, I could have used characters who changed and a story that was more full. There were so many opportunities in the story to go into deeper meaning or symbolism or subtext. Sin City was a comic orgy of glorifying comic book characters and dime novel stories, even in the film characters that died earlier show up in the bar in another story. The characters can't really die. Everything about the film screamed comic and it worked and was entirely entertaining. In 300, the visuals were stunning and for the director to achieve something so visually stylized throughout the whole film is a respectable feat, just knowing the history of 300, there is so much room for a full, great story I felt it lacked soul.
Frank Miller’s “300” is quite essentially a movie that commemorates the glorious stand of 300 Spartans and a few thousand Greeks against the vast hordes of the invading Persian army led by Xerxes. Based on Frank Miller’s comic, the movie follows almost flawlessly how Frank Miller penned out the story panel by panel not only by following through story but also capturing its artistic style. The way that this movie has been made may remind someone about how older period movies between 40’s and 70’s were made. Still the movie’s use of computer technology at the time not only sets itself as an epic that will stand the test of time to be remembered by movie buffs years from now but also the artistic style, narration, and direction that the movie took presents itself as a very unique piece that enhances the story and enjoyability of the movie even further than some movies such as Collin’s “Alexander” or Troy.
There seems to be a trend that almost every year or every other year there’s always one epic movie and/or TV series that heads back and glorifies the periods of the Roman Empire, Ancient Greece, Europe, and/or somewhere around the a well known period of time in B.C. For example, “Troy” was made into a movie that was taken to the point of making it a grand epic movie that successfully captivated quite a lot of people due to Achilles and the Trojan Horse. However, the story seems to be twisted to the fancy of a writer who took and twisted the events of history where you know that a couple of major events did happen but exaggerated to the point where things got really blurry with the real history in order to keep the audience happy. This actually kept the movie from being one of the greatest movies of all time into just a movie that’s fun to watch once in a while as long as one doesn’t take it too seriously. In order to achieve the epic grandeur of the movie, CG was used to create the massive fleets and armies presented in the movie. Though the CG did its job, the feel of the movie seems to be unoriginal in style and direction in comparison to say a movie like Lord of the Rings. About one year apart from “Troy” you have another epic warrior clashing film called “Kingdom of Heaven” which talks about how pointless the crusades were while entertaining the audience with Orlando Bloom, a decent storyline, and CG for the massive battles and armies needed for the movie. Again CG was used for creating armies and battles for “Alexander the Great” with Anthony Hopkins and Angelina Jolie. Ironically enough the movie was featured to be an epic and the history of Alexander seems to be embellish yet close to the real history of Alexander yet it flopped at the box office unlike the previous two examples and 300. The style of the CG used for that movie seems to be not well put together like the two previous examples to the point where it negates the movie instead. By coincidence this has led to 3 revisions of the movie on DVD with supposedly each revision better than the last one. In the case of 300, the CG was used for the battles and armies but done in a way that not so crazily massive like Troy and Kingdom of Heaven but yet enough to move the story along and entertain the audiences.
The script and narration has great lines that captivates the audience and allows the CG to make and move the story in such a way that it captures the essence and entertainment of the delivered lines. For example, the line about “Fighting in the Shade” leads to the prelude of the raining of the arrows that block out the sun which is all done by CG. The CG in this case actually captures not only millions of arrows in the sky but also enhances that line and makes some of the audience laugh with the Spartans as they crack a joke about it. Another example where the CG and narration helps each other hand in hand is the scene where Leonidas throws the spear at Xerxes. The narration creates the tension about why Leonisdas does what he did before Xerxes creating the effect that is most profound than most other movies such as 10,000BC where one thinks that the main character should just get to the point throw the spear at the Evil Albino man. What prevents that from happening in the case of 300 is how the scene is built up. When something is built up properly, there is tension and feeling for the characters for the audience to the point where they want to see and analyze the process regardless if they know the end result. The CG in this particular case adds upon that in the compositing aspect where you see a CG spear thrown straight through Xerxes face and blood comes out as a result. One could say that the spear could’ve just been a 1 sec straight throw to Xerxes leg or arm but this one was done through the use of CG and slow motion to enhance the effect of the wound itself. This creates and adds onto the desired effect of Xerxes not being a god with gravity.
Character development and the storyline are simplistic rather than having levels of complexity. The story can be summed up as 300 Spartans against everyone else. The character development is not so complex only in the sense that the big picture and point of the movie is to show and remember the 300 and their battle against the Persian army. Almost all the characters are stereotypical varying from the faithful wife, the heroic hero, the backstabbing politician, to the wannabe who got shot down by the protagonist. Throughout almost the entire movie, these characters do not deviate from their roles. If they did it was to only show a whimsical side to their nature so as to not make them completely 2D such as when Leonidas eats an apple out in the middle of the battleground. Still even though there’s very limited character development it doesn’t limit nor decrease the overall entertainment of the overall movie as the characters in their roles are in a sense at the pinnacle height of their character in their lives.
The feel and style of the movie does give reminder to some of the sets used from epic Roman Empire movies from the 40’s thru the 70’s. The use of green screen in 300 in a way that maybe intentional or not gives reminder to the use of massive matte painting sets used to exhibit roman arenas or epic landscapes in movie studios back in the day.. In a way, 300 is the 21st Century equivalent of those movies. More like old school techniques from the 40’s getting a digital upgrade.
Overall 300 with its compositing CG work and simple yet effective story stands as a very enjoyable movie with an original feel and style that will most likely be duplicated in future movies. This is all thanks to the original history of the 300 Spartans and Frank Miller for creating the comic book.
4 comments:
300 is an intriguing visual film. The special effects and film meld together so well to create a visual style exactly parallel to the actual graphic novel the film was based on. The colors are muted in some shots and in other shots the reds and yellows are blown out, creating a mood that fits with the storyline. I think this film is similar to Tron in some respects. Both films had appropriate settings and effects for their time and content. Tron's CG components all matched the story line. If one were to enter the computer world in the 80's, I believe whole heartily that the cinematography in Tron is what it would look like. Even when Kevin Flynn gets "scanned" into the computer, he gets scanned one line at a time, which hilariously imitates the old printers of the time. On a side note, that is why I don't think a modern Tron could ever work. What would the contemporary computer world look like? I think the Matrix trilogy has shown what the computer world would look like in modern times. Though it is easy to get sidetracked on Tron, we have to get back to 300.
If another comparison was to be made with 300, the prior film based off of a Frank Miller graphic novel , Sin City. Sin City was visually stunning as well, again a majority of the shots matching the frames of the graphic novel. One of the major differences though is Sin City felt more like a comic book in theme and style and it worked. What was great about Sin City was the characters were as flat as the shots. They were as black and white as the shots as well. Again, no character went through any character arch, or changed in any way. The perfect example of this is the Bruce Willis story. He saves the same girl from the same guy when he and she were young as he does in the end of the film. The problem with 300 is, I could have used characters who changed and a story that was more full. There were so many opportunities in the story to go into deeper meaning or symbolism or subtext. Sin City was a comic orgy of glorifying comic book characters and dime novel stories, even in the film characters that died earlier show up in the bar in another story. The characters can't really die. Everything about the film screamed comic and it worked and was entirely entertaining. In 300, the visuals were stunning and for the director to achieve something so visually stylized throughout the whole film is a respectable feat, just knowing the history of 300, there is so much room for a full, great story I felt it lacked soul.
Frank Miller’s “300” is quite essentially a movie that commemorates the glorious stand of 300 Spartans and a few thousand Greeks against the vast hordes of the invading Persian army led by Xerxes. Based on Frank Miller’s comic, the movie follows almost flawlessly how Frank Miller penned out the story panel by panel not only by following through story but also capturing its artistic style. The way that this movie has been made may remind someone about how older period movies between 40’s and 70’s were made. Still the movie’s use of computer technology at the time not only sets itself as an epic that will stand the test of time to be remembered by movie buffs years from now but also the artistic style, narration, and direction that the movie took presents itself as a very unique piece that enhances the story and enjoyability of the movie even further than some movies such as Collin’s “Alexander” or Troy.
There seems to be a trend that almost every year or every other year there’s always one epic movie and/or TV series that heads back and glorifies the periods of the Roman Empire, Ancient Greece, Europe, and/or somewhere around the a well known period of time in B.C. For example, “Troy” was made into a movie that was taken to the point of making it a grand epic movie that successfully captivated quite a lot of people due to Achilles and the Trojan Horse. However, the story seems to be twisted to the fancy of a writer who took and twisted the events of history where you know that a couple of major events did happen but exaggerated to the point where things got really blurry with the real history in order to keep the audience happy. This actually kept the movie from being one of the greatest movies of all time into just a movie that’s fun to watch once in a while as long as one doesn’t take it too seriously. In order to achieve the epic grandeur of the movie, CG was used to create the massive fleets and armies presented in the movie. Though the CG did its job, the feel of the movie seems to be unoriginal in style and direction in comparison to say a movie like Lord of the Rings. About one year apart from “Troy” you have another epic warrior clashing film called “Kingdom of Heaven” which talks about how pointless the crusades were while entertaining the audience with Orlando Bloom, a decent storyline, and CG for the massive battles and armies needed for the movie. Again CG was used for creating armies and battles for “Alexander the Great” with Anthony Hopkins and Angelina Jolie. Ironically enough the movie was featured to be an epic and the history of Alexander seems to be embellish yet close to the real history of Alexander yet it flopped at the box office unlike the previous two examples and 300. The style of the CG used for that movie seems to be not well put together like the two previous examples to the point where it negates the movie instead. By coincidence this has led to 3 revisions of the movie on DVD with supposedly each revision better than the last one. In the case of 300, the CG was used for the battles and armies but done in a way that not so crazily massive like Troy and Kingdom of Heaven but yet enough to move the story along and entertain the audiences.
The script and narration has great lines that captivates the audience and allows the CG to make and move the story in such a way that it captures the essence and entertainment of the delivered lines. For example, the line about “Fighting in the Shade” leads to the prelude of the raining of the arrows that block out the sun which is all done by CG. The CG in this case actually captures not only millions of arrows in the sky but also enhances that line and makes some of the audience laugh with the Spartans as they crack a joke about it. Another example where the CG and narration helps each other hand in hand is the scene where Leonidas throws the spear at Xerxes. The narration creates the tension about why Leonisdas does what he did before Xerxes creating the effect that is most profound than most other movies such as 10,000BC where one thinks that the main character should just get to the point throw the spear at the Evil Albino man. What prevents that from happening in the case of 300 is how the scene is built up. When something is built up properly, there is tension and feeling for the characters for the audience to the point where they want to see and analyze the process regardless if they know the end result. The CG in this particular case adds upon that in the compositing aspect where you see a CG spear thrown straight through Xerxes face and blood comes out as a result. One could say that the spear could’ve just been a 1 sec straight throw to Xerxes leg or arm but this one was done through the use of CG and slow motion to enhance the effect of the wound itself. This creates and adds onto the desired effect of Xerxes not being a god with gravity.
Character development and the storyline are simplistic rather than having levels of complexity. The story can be summed up as 300 Spartans against everyone else.
The character development is not so complex only in the sense that the big picture and point of the movie is to show and remember the 300 and their battle against the Persian army. Almost all the characters are stereotypical varying from the faithful wife, the heroic hero, the backstabbing politician, to the wannabe who got shot down by the protagonist. Throughout almost the entire movie, these characters do not deviate from their roles. If they did it was to only show a whimsical side to their nature so as to not make them completely 2D such as when Leonidas eats an apple out in the middle of the battleground. Still even though there’s very limited character development it doesn’t limit nor decrease the overall entertainment of the overall movie as the characters in their roles are in a sense at the pinnacle height of their character in their lives.
The feel and style of the movie does give reminder to some of the sets used from epic Roman Empire movies from the 40’s thru the 70’s. The use of green screen in 300 in a way that maybe intentional or not gives reminder to the use of massive matte painting sets used to exhibit roman arenas or epic landscapes in movie studios back in the day.. In a way, 300 is the 21st Century equivalent of those movies. More like old school techniques from the 40’s getting a digital upgrade.
Overall 300 with its compositing CG work and simple yet effective story stands as a very enjoyable movie with an original feel and style that will most likely be duplicated in future movies. This is all thanks to the original history of the 300 Spartans and Frank Miller for creating the comic book.
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