300!

So I actually went to see this on opening night, sorta. I hadn't planned on it because my weekend was already going to be pretty busy, but then I figured, "why not?" We actually tried to get tickets at two different theatres, and couldn't get anything earlier than 12:10am on Friday night/Saturday morning. So obviously, $70m+ wasn't a surprise to me.

We got to the theatre in Burbank at least an hour early, and this is what the line looked like:

Not so bad until you realize that way off in the distance, the line doesn't end, but goes up a very high flight of stairs. It was actually not a bad wait, but it certainly looked it. There were some pro-life demonstrators trying to convert people, which was uncomfortable. I'm not religious in the least. There were also a couple of kids trying to bribe someone to let them cut the line.

Anyway, I thought the movie was well-executed, great style, at once modern and ancient. Love the grainy film stock, digital would have made it too cold. There was a touch of detachment which I found heartbreaking, but they don't dwell on it. It's almost like the filmmakers have taken the stoic Spartan-ness to heart and aren't about to let emotion bubble to the surface. I think that people will either really enjoy it, or really dislike it. Some folks have made the argument that it is xenophobic, homophobic, etceteraphobic...but we're looking at it through 21st century eyes. I'm sure that over the course of the millenia that people have said awful things about one another in order to rally their forces and "win." This is told from a Spartan point of view, what would a Spartan military leader tell his government and troops? That the Persians were nice guys? The Persians were supposedly benevolent conquerors, but that doesn't mean that the Greeks were wrong to fight for their independence.

I don't see this as a truly historical film, but an action movie of historical fiction. Movies are for entertainment, for suspending belief. If I want to know what really happened, I can go check out a book at the library, for chrissakes!

Oh, and the boys were so beautiful, props to the costume designer! :P