300 Elysians

Yes, I have watched 300. 300 half-naked men with big shields, thick spears. 300 men *dying*. That's what counts, methinks. It can't be a good war movie if people didn't die in it. If I were to watch the movie as a movie-goer, I'd say that the story was mediocre at best. After all, the idea of brave men fighting valiantly, being betrayed, getting killed and all is really rather overdone. Blood and gore does not make a movie greater than it would be were there a storyline with more depth. However, I am watching the movie as a reader of the graphic novel from which it was adapted. as an adaptation, I'd say that the movie was excellent. Sure, they rearranged the storyline some. But then again, the graphic novel would look downright disjointed in movie form. There is no rewind for movies, after all.

I may have liked the action, but I sure did not appreciate the tactics the Spartans were using on screen. I missed watching them fighting in neat formations, their allies coming to their aid and the use of the great wall of enemy bodies they made. I personally find it silly to build a huge wall of bodies, push it over one enemy, then clamber over the entire pile just to get at the enemy. Total waste of effort.