300
(2007; HD-DVD/DVD Combo Format + Full Screen DVD)
Picture:
B+/C+/C Sound: A-/B-/C+ Extras: C+/C+ Film: C+
There was
a time when a film looking like a comic book meant only bright colors and
storylines leaning towards comedy, even when action was a factor. Though there were always darker comics (as Creepshow proves), Superhero and Action
material were not always dark, even when they were smart. With the arrival of more mature graphic novel
comic books, built on the success of underground Comix of the 1970s, it was
inevitable films based on such material would surface. So far, Zack Snyder’s success has been under
the authorship of other talents and he owes Frank Miller a big thank you for
the commercial and critical success of 300.
A big hit
in early 2007 that surprised the industry and establishment, we looked at the
film upon its first arrival and even our review was controversial:
300 (Theatrical Review)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5098/300+(Theatrical+Film+Review)
This is
another retelling of how 300 Spartan soldiers took on and held off armies much
larger than their own. We have seen this
kind of film before in genre, in general and this is not the first filmed
version. However, as done through the
eyes of Miller, it becomes another world of the semi-dark ages. Gerard Butler is King Leonidas, who decides
he can take on the powerful Xerxes and his powerful, tricky, deadly Persian
Army with a properly assembled army of his own.
The film
follows just how he intends to do that, the stakes involved, his relationship
with his country, his wife (Lena Headey) and loyalty to his friends. The motivations are logical and propel the
narrative, including backstabbing occurring back at home while the King is
away. The film is graphic, even if its
stylized look has it limits.
Outside
of any issues with the look, this is well done, but we have seen so much of
this before and the only reason why it was a hit is because this is the first
time it was done for a new generation. Alexander and Troy (both reviewed elsewhere on this site) were aimed at a
younger, wider audience, but that audience did not show up. This film is less pretentious than those, to
its benefit, enough to offset other issues for its audience.
However,
repeat viewing is another story and though it is filled with the violence and
energy to match its machismo, it is not up there with the best such epics and
if its style was not there to hide behind, this would be more obvious. Its commercial success makes sense and shows
how strong Miller’s writing (adapted by Snyder, Kurt Johnstad and Michael B.
Gordon) doesn’t ruin the original material, though there is nothing like
reading the book. Now it is offered in
several versions on home video and we’ll look at two versions.
Several
DVD-Video versions, a high definition Blu-ray and HD-DVD/DVD Combo edition are
arriving on the same day. We have the
HD-DVD and the oddest of all, a Full Screen DVD-Video edition.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image looks better than expected considering
the highly stylized nature of the film, and it was shot on film in the Super
35mm format. So many bad features have
arrived with color gutted or with monochromatic schemes that looked bad or like
color that was turned off by some hack who did not know better that it is a
nice change when someone does this kind of thing correctly. David Fincher began this with Se7en (keeping silver in the film print
in his case) and most attempts since have been remarkably disastrous, but
Director of Photography Larry Fong knew he had to compete with films like Alexander, Gladiator and Troy. He and his collaborators knew they had to
come up with a look that would distinguish their product from the others,
especially since they knew they would use digital effects as those previous
films in this cycle of such epic productions would.
The
result is a sometimes monotonous, but four color monochromatic approach (off-white,
sepia gold, maroon red, gray blue) with little in-between color was effective
enough and though there is noise from the grain of the Super 35mm filming plus
noise from the digital effects that made some think this was an all-digital
shoot when it was not, they pulled it off.
Unfortunately, this does not lend itself to repeated viewings on a
visual level, with the picture’s naturalism feeling plugged up and that was a
part of the debate our theatrical review led to.
The noise
is more of an issue in the lower-definition of the anamorphically enhanced DVD
side of the Combo disc which limits it a good bit and the Full Screen DVD is
almost useless with its production almost shocking at this point with
widescreen TV on the rise. You can
really see the visual noise amplified to the point that you can outright reject
this version.
When
rightly comparing this film to the best-looking examples of epic filmmaking
like Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus or
David Lean’s Lawrence Of Arabia,
reactions to that statement ranged form making our theatrical film critic twice
his actual age to peculiar statements about this film showing that we should
always expect the moviemaking “artform to grow” as if any change was growth by
default. If anything, this is a step
backwards visually as is anything that degrades fidelity, but it gets away with
it since it is trying to look like a graphic novel comic book. Therefore, any idea of automatic growth is a
fallacy, especially when trying to imitate another medium, which simply makes it
a novelty more than an innovation. With
that said, 300 joins the few films
(like Marcus Nispel’s Pathfinder)
whose stylizing is not in vein and was worth the step backwards visually.
As for
audio, 300 has no issues to worry
about here, for it has one of the best soundtracks around for any film, which
was obvious from my first 35mm screening.
Like all recent previous Warner features based on their DC Comics line
up (Batman Begins, Superman Returns, Constantine) has state-of-the-art top sonic design and once again,
a Dolby TrueHD track has been included to take full advantage of the mix. This includes Tyler Bates helpful music score
and is a fine demo disc on sound alone for any HD home theater system. Not only was the film released in the three
theatrical digital formats (Dolby, DTS, SDDS) but in its IMAX release, was in
the Sonics-DDP format to fill up all those speakers with some major
soundfield. There is also Dolby Digital
Plus 5.1, which is not as good, and standard Dolby Digital 5.1 on the DVD side,
which is a little lighter, but the Dolby Digital 5.1 on the Full Screen DVD
cuts down the soundfield to match the cut up picture and is a wreck.
The only
extra for the DVD-Video versions is feature length audio commentary by Snyder,
Johnstad and Fong, while the HD-DVD (usually in HD) has the many more extras
including HD exclusive Vengeance &
Valor game, deleted scenes with an introduction by Snyder, a bluescreen
version of the film you can watch picture-in-picture with the final version, 300 - Fact or Fiction? featurette, Who Were The Spartans: The Warriors of 300
featurette, The Frank Miller Tapes,
stills, mobile phone downloads and Webisodes with behind the scenes footage of
the film. A double DVD set has most of
those, but only this HD-DVD version is able to deliver the complete 300 only missing a copy of the book.
For more
on other films like 300, try these
links:
Spartacus (HD-DVD)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4555/Spartacus+(HD-DVD)
The 300 Spartans (DVD)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1164/300+Spartans
- Nicholas Sheffo
