You do know that this was an adaptation of a comic right? Did you have the same issues with Sin City? I do agree that the Nu-Metal music was a surprise and seemed out of place but other than that, I thought the dialoge was true to the original and the whole movie was visually stunning, a modern Ben Hur in my book. I saw it on a digital screen in Millbury, not sure how it looked analog.

 A funny note on society...A father and his 11 or 12 year old son sat in fromt of us and the father covered his sons eyes during the nude scenes, no problem with the violence though.  

I love the dialogue in this movie. I also love how it is being told by a Spartan story teller, so the persians are monsters, and disgusting subhumans.

I do like the comic better, but the movie touched up on a few other things, and left some of the book out. They are both perfect in their own ways.

I too wish that the man with saw arms was a bigger player in the battles.

I also think that every girl in this movie was incredibly hot.

But Frank Miller is awesome: that goat totally caught me off guard.

you'll forget this movie existed in a year. nya nya nya

Barry, was the funny book as much of a bore?

How can you say it was boring? Didn't you hear the Metal music halfway through?

I thought it represented the book well and the cinematography was amazing. It was not an action film. No snappy "Rush Hour" dialogue or "Matrix" like action. It was meant to be a larger than life semi-historical film.

I liked the movie, for the most part, because on the rare occasion that I actually DO go to the movies, I want a bit of escapism...whether this is an historical account or a cartoon, I think the movie was done with alot of flair, style, but had it's fair share of stumbles...

 What I took out of the overall presentation was that the story was being presented in the same, grandiose style that someone might spin folklore or legend in a lively tongue...in these cases, the bad guys are always bigger or more exotic, the foes that much more unstoppable as to further drive home the concept that these mere 300 souls fought off such impossible odds...that is why I figured Xerxes was that much taller than Leonides, and the Immortal were that much more "supernatural"...  that's how it always works in folklore....

 edit: I loved the cinematography, thought the speed up slow down presentation of the fighting scenes were cool, if a tad Matrix-like, too often fight scenes are just too garbled and you can't key in on what is going on because it is so grand in scale...so the intercutting was really cool... the choice of color tones in the movie were unique, the costume design (love them loincloths) was at least for the Spartans, from what I gather, pretty correct (it's been said that anything more would've slowed them down) and thought set design was neat...I thought the wolf at the beginning was terribly cool.

 As for character development, there were really only two or three central characters that I feel we were meant to "care" about and they were fleshed out, at the very least, adequately. We KNOW why Leonides was fighting. We KNOW the bad guy on the council had his motives. etc. etc.  Any more exposition would only weigh the movie down, and sure, the fight scenes were endless and long in the tooth, but really, 1) it's a graphic novel, and 2) there's a "wow" factor" to maintain.

 Do I think this movie will go down as a "great"? No. But I was entertained. It did it's job...aside from the cheesy buddy buddy one liners, the one thing that stuck out the most as a "stumble" was the quite uncomfortable love scene...not presented very well:

"My love, I'm off to battle, ASSUME MULTIPLE POSITIONS!"- to laugh.

Ron 

Well, I could go on about what I did like about the movie, but it would have made the post twice as long....I guess what I liked most was the way you gripped my hand tighter upon your realisation it was RuPaul...

Of course, anything to get into the spirit of the movie, much like the way you love when I wear my Stormtrooper helmet when....

Oh, and it wasn't oil, it was imitation butter, I'm not a clean eater. Sorry. 

Ron, if I remember correctly you were also compelled to defend the Star Wars prequels. I think I see a trend here.

I like the comic better. It's less reliant on action in the comic: The movie would have been boring without it (it would have been pointless to make into a movie), but the comic is cool either way.
The comics has more of the Spartans being biased and racist, which is excellent. Also none of the stuff with the queen in Sparta happens in the book.

Frank Miller is incredible.

Not all of us buddy. :)