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"300" HD DVD

Posted by 4season on August 5, 2007 at 12:44:53:
This was my first encounter with this Sparta-goes-to-war-against-staggering-odds movie, and though I'm not sure about adding it to my permanent collection, I thought it was good solid entertainment. On one had, I rooted for the Spartans because they were the underdog, but on the other, talk about messed-up values, glorifying combat to the extreme.

Picture quality: Deliberately grainy and contrasty, looks dramatic in 1080p, if not exactly natural. Action sequences are first-rate but derivative of "bullet time" ("spear time"?) and any number of Hong Kong action movies.

Extras: Lots of extras! The real star of the HD DVD features is the picture-in-picture showing the original footage against bluescreen w/director commentary over the finished movie. It gives a real demonstration of how the video was "crushed" to give it a more dramatic, comic-like look, but also how cramped the actual sets were. Also of interest are interviews of historians and Frank Miller himself, with regard to what the real Sparta was like. Also quite a few "Webisodes" showing various behind the scenes activities, but here, my attention started to wander.

Web-enabled features: This was pretty weak: The only web-based content is to sell mobile phone wallpapers and ringtones, and the site didn't even seem to be working correctly.

All in all, a good guy's movie: The women I spoke to seemed ambivalent.