Frank Miller's 300

Have you heard about this movie? Way back in 480 B.C. an army of a million Persians were about to wage war with Greece, when the king of Sparta, Leonidas, and 300 of his best men set off to hold the Persians off at the Hot Gates. What you see is guts, gore, and glory.

The Good: This movie is what you can call a near perfect translation. The look, the feel, even the casting was as spot on as you can ever see. It followed the comic from start to bloody finish, which isn't THAT hard considering the comic was, in total, 5 issues. But it could have gone so wrong, but instead was totally right. The director didn't reinterpt the work to reflect his own vision and it paid off for us, the viewer. Visually stunning, visually spot on.

The Bad: Really not much. All changes to the comic more came from additional material, not altered. A couple days before I saw this flick I caught the History Channel special on the 300 which normally wouldn't be noteworthy, but this time has a point. The beginning of the flick recounts the upbringing of young Spartan boys, something the comic glossed over and the History Channel well detailed. That's not as bad as it sounds. However they did also add MUCH to the part of Gorga (?), the Spartan Queen. In the comic she had a bit part. She was there mostly to say goodbye to our king; in this movie she rallied the Spartan council to support her husband and go to war. Oh, and she get's fucked. The only bad part, really bad part, is because of her (and other family bonds shown) the Spartans look less bad-ass and more human. And let's face facts, this is the story of the ultimate bad-ass group of men in history.

The Ugly: Everything gets a little exaggerated in this flick. Rhinos, giants, dudes with swords for arms, the numbers, and even Xerxes seems a bit big in the britches. Yes, you have to look at these movie as a storytellers story. Exaggerated, blown up, larger than life. But most negative reviews this flick gets are from people who don't know that, and that's there loss. How bad is this? Not very. Again, it's additional material.

How Close to Perfect: 9/10

This comic was only 5 issues, and most of it was marching and narrative. Basically if done according to the comic it would've only been an hour flick at best. It needed the new material, and luckily it wasn't material that strayed way off course. And visually? Holy crap, this movie got all the visuals right (even if it sometimes looked too cartoony/unrealistic), from the effects to casting to color pallate. So why not 10/10? Because Leonidas is too in love in this movie, and not the cold Spartan bad-ass of the comic. Really, that is the one true fault of this flick. Everything else: perfection.