Monday, March 31, 2014

Hey! We Saw Some More Movies!



300: Rise of an Empire (AKA the sequel to the most homo-erotically violent film of all time)

I entered this movie with low expectations and that turned out to be a good idea. Honestly, if you liked the original, this one is more of the same. It's not bad, easily as over the top as the first film. I don't think it was better than its predecessor, but Rise of an Empire was better than I had anticipated. Again, I had really low expectations and a long, grueling winter had driven my desire to see graphic, outrageous violence.

History is definitely on the side of this franchise. The Persians did stage a massive invasion all over Greece, so there was ample area to tell a totally different story... kind of necessary considering how the first one ended.

That said, the story wasn't bad. The plot centered on the naval battles between the Athenians, led by Themistocles and the Persians, guided by Artemisia, Xerxes' second in command. Themistocles was given the back story that years before when the Persians had attacked, he had personally killed King Darius, Xerxes' father. (This was not at all historically accurate by the way. Darius had died 4 years prior to that battle in Egypt.) Themistocles was a decent heroic bad ass, though it was painfully obvious that he was really a carbon copy of Gerard Butler's King Leonidas. Artemisia made for an interesting villain. I always enjoy a bad ass woman character and hers felt believable. I think her back-story may have been a little too sympathetic, though. It clearly highlighted why she hated the Greeks, but kind of made us pity her in a sense and, at least to me, made me think that the Greeks had it coming a little bit.

Anyone who goes to one of the 300 films for a history lesson deserves the F they are destined to receive. These movies are as accurate at Tarantino's Inglorius Basterds (or did you actually think Hitler and the entire Third Reich elite were gunned down in a theater in Paris a year before the war ended?). But sometimes, the fantasy is much more fun than the facts. Artemisia is based on a real person, but she was nowhere near the evil, manipulative, power-craving bitch that we saw in Rise of an Empire. She also had far less involvement in the naval strategies of the Persian fleet, only advising Xerxes and only commanding 5 Persian ships herself.

I find it interesting that the original 300 had an interesting cast who were all pretty unknown at the time, but in the years since 2007, many have gone on to big things. Gerard Butler's career was catapulted by the film. Lena Headey has appeared in many shows, most notably her present role in Game of Thrones. Michael Fassbender is fast becoming a huge name, having been nominated for an Academy Award last year. Dominic West has been getting lots of work, one of his biggest on the critically acclaimed show The Wire. Of course, the only one to return for Rise of an Empire was Lena Headey... you know, since the others all died in the first one. Still, I have to wonder if lightning will strike twice and any the new cast will rocket to fame. Eva Green has already had some success with films like Casino Royale, Dark Shadows and the upcoming Sin City sequel. Only time will tell is Sullivan Stapleton will reach Butler's level of success.

If I had to guess, there will be at least a third in the 300 series. Rise of an Empire certainly set up a sequel and the film was number one at the box office in America. (Hell, I've seen a lot less successful films get sequels!) That said, I would be willing to bet that the filmmakers will once again thwart historical accuracy and have the heroes kill Xerxes, something that the Greeks had nothing to do with. If the "good guys" killed his father in the films, what's stopping them?

Jonny's Contribution - The answer is Yes! Yes, I do like gladiator movies! 

Wow... I wonder how many people will get that reference.


Veronica Mars

The movie spawned by the Kickstarter campaign heard across the world! Okay, that sentence doesn't make much sense, but the start-up for the Veronica Mars movie just might have changed Hollywood. Now salivating die-hard Firefly fans can speculate anew and I can keep wonder "Where the hell is the movie based on Jericho?"

Getting more to the point, TivoGirl and I were big fans of the show and helped contribute to the Kickstarter campaign. So of course we would venture to the nearest AMC theater to us (many miles away) to see the finished product. It did not disappoint.

The Veronica Mars movie felt like a feature length episode... which is the best possible outcome for such a project. The humor was all there, the feel, the angst, the cleverness and intrigue. It was all there. Plus there were tons of throwbacks to the television series including cameos from favorites and a few references. Creator, co-writer and director Rob Thomas got virtually everyone back... you know, of the still surviving characters. (When people refer to an alum class as 'the survivors of the class of such and such, in Neptune High's case, they aren't screwing around!) There were even a few hilarious celebrity cameos including James Franco playing himself and Kristin Bell's real life husband Dax Shepard as a sleazy bar patron trying to hook up with Veronica using some interesting dance moves.

That said, I believe somebody who had never seen the show would probably enjoy the movie. I don't think such a viewer would be lost having never seen the source material, but it certainly helps. In the same way that the movie centered on Veronica's ten-year reunion, it felt like a reunion for us fans to see some old friends again. I definitely recommend this movie. Hell, I recommend the brilliant and underrated series. Watch all three seasons, then check out the movie. Lets put it this way, the Kickstarter campaign took less than 24 hours to reach the minimum of 2 million dollars necessary to make the film. The rabid fan-base that accomplished such a feat must be onto something, right?

Note: Jonny Prophet did not see Veronica Mars as he had never seen the series. It seems he spent 2004-2007 in a nuclear submarine somewhere deep in the Pacific Ocean as he was doing his civic duty of "eliminating the kaiju menace at its source." 

I for one sleep better at night knowing an unstable man has his own nuclear submarine.

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