300 + Paulo = Xerxes?

I went to see 300 at the Imax cinema in London recently and it is one of the best films I have seen in a long time. I like powerful films and, whilst the story was a little thin, this film was VERY powerful.

Nobody goes to see a film like 300 for the story, but what there was of it was done more than well enough. For those who aren’t aware (and I’m late to the party so you must have read about it elsewhere) 300 covers the battle of Thermapolae in which 300 Spartans stood again the millions of the Persian army.

This film is pure popcorn fantasy – it’s wonderful to look at and, like Sin City before it, follows it’s source material, a comic book by Frank Miller, very closely. Also like Sin City the movie was filmed largely on Blue Screen with the sets added in via computer. This has enabled them to make the scenery and design fit the comics much closer. I must admit that, despite knowing about the computer art, I didn’t spend much time looking at the set’s because there was so much other stuff going on.

This is not a film for girls – there is no way my girlfriend would ever watch this. I went with people from work – we invited the females in the office but they turned us down – and I suspect they made the right choice. It’s strange that a film consisting almost entirely of muscle bound men in red leather thongs would be the manliest film in many years but somehow it works!

300 + Paulo = Xerxes?

Yeah… the heading.

Something I am surprised more hasn’t been made of is Xerxes. In the film he is a 12 foot tall (just guessing the height), black man, who thinks he’s a God.

In reality he’s a Brazillian actor named Rodrigo Santoro who is best known in England and America (he’s much better known in Brazil) for playing a rather unpopular character, Paulo, in the tv series Lost.

I’m not saying he was bad at all – in fact I didn’t find out until after the film, I just find it amazing that the producers would cast someone so different to the character they wanted to portray.

Anyway the film is most excellent, and anyone wanting to watch a popcorn action movie couldn’t go too wrong with it.