Last night I had the unbelievable good fortune to be in the very first test audience for the movie 300. I’m just going to gush now….
This movie is f-ing AMAZING! It’s far superior in look, story, and performances to Sin City. I was enraptured from the moment the film began until it finished. It’s got the same themes and heart that Gladiator had. Gerry Butler IS King Leonidas. He so embodies this role much as Russell embodied Maximus. All of the actors committed completely to their characters and to their director. At times it felt very much like I was watching a play. The women characters in Sin City were offensive to me so I was nervous about how the character of the Queen (the one woman in the movie) was going to come off. Lena Headey (who I just LOVE) owned this role and it was one of my favorites in the film: so strong, so sympathetic. And talk about man flesh! Clearly every personal trainer in the Montreal area was working on this movie. The men look incredible. I couldn’t chose! And whoever lit their abs deserves an Oscar!
Since we’re talking about a war there are some truly brutal battle scenes. Maybe I’m an odd chick but I love watching this stuff: the hacking of limbs, the spurting blood. There are some seriously bad-ass stunts in this movie shot using that superslow-mo that are too cool. So don’t fool yourself, this movie is R for good reasons: you get your sex, nudity (sadly no male full-frontal and I toyed with the idea of requesting that on my survey) and your violence. So something for everyone.
What we saw was about 75% done I’d say. There were a couple shots that were obviously unfinished. I’m hoping this early screening means they’re going to push the release date up. No one is going to believe this was shot on a sound stage in Montreal. I know there’s more I’m forgetting to say but I don’t want to give too much away. A thousand thanks to Laura for making sure I had my place in line. She fought like a true Spartan.