300: In Preparation to Dine in Hell

If you listed "Watching Movies" as one of your hobby, and yet, you had never heard about "300" lately, you need to reconsider by naming "Movies" as your hobby. Because certainly, "Movies", "Films", "Moving Pictures", was not your hobby at all. It was either that, or you live in someplace where internet was an unknown force of evil.

Anyway, i had mentioned about 300's director Zack Snyder on one of my post in this blog sometime in October. My expectation was high since. Because i had liked Zack Snyder's work since that yummy Dawn of the Dead remake up to now, and eagerly anticipating for more.

Now, 300 opens to a massive US$ 70 million weekend opening, thus becoming the highest grossing-film opening in March of all-time, and become the third highest grossing R-rated film (behind The Matrix Reloaded and The Passion of the Christ) to claim the North American top box-office. Surely, i think, i had securely made my point when i said that you should reconsider to give-up the title "Movie lover" or the likes if you haven't heard about "300".

The film was based on a Frank Miller's book. Call me if you need to read the comic, i had one. Not merely based, but from what i've seen in the trailer, the scenes in the film were literally picked-up from the comic. The scene with the wolf, the scene with the Persian ambassador, or even the already infamous scene with Gerard Butler screamed in anger. All of the scenes that i've already seen from the trailer, were literal translations from comic book panel to moving images. The resemblance was made even more uncanny with extensive uses of stop-motion and slow-motions.

I had secured a plan to watch 300 this weekend. From the news i gathered from 'ever trusted' (notice the sarcasm hint on the single quote) 21Cineplex, the film should be open this Saturday.

The further great news about the success of 300 was the possibility of Zack Snyder to secure a funding for his next project, Alan Moore's magnum-opus, Watchmen. The only comic book to received Hugo Award, the only comic book to appear on Time Magazine's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present, the comic that arguably coined the term "graphic novels", and surely the most weighed, dark-themed, most personal superhero comic book that i've ever read. Alan Moore was that British guy who also wrote V for Vendetta by the way, and he was a hard man to please. Zack was rumored to work on Watchmen for couple of years. And as a one-time comic fan, i was more eager to see how Watchmen translated into moving pictures rather than seeing a six-packed guy full of testosterone slay each-other. Hopefully that after the financially successful 300, Watchmen would had a green-light. And he has confirmed that Watchmen will be his next project. However, he should be cautious, because, not every comic-geek loved him (and his works) the way i do, and one little misstep with Watchmen, would be a blasphemous act to many.