film
mar 18
2007

Stephenson and 300

Neal Stephenson has a NYT op-ed piece about seeing 300 (at a Seattle theater a few blocks from my house, actually). He argues that only the "less politicized majority" get the film, meandering his way to geekdom: "The growing popularity of science fiction, the rise of graphic novels, anime and video games, and the fact that geeks can make lots of money now, have given creators and fans of this kind of art a confidence, even a swagger, that -- hard as it is for some of us to believe -- is kind of cool now."
4 comments

This sorta reminds me of the critical reception to <em>The Matrix</em>, which was just so-so, but in the long run will easily go down as the most remembered film of that year. (I haven't seen <em>300</em> yet though.)

posted by Rex at 2007-03-18 15:32:09

I haven't seen it yet either but the people who work with me went ape shit for it which means I most likely will also. Granted, I produce a TV show that caters to the exact people Stephenson is talking about.<br /><br /> <br /><br />

posted by Gavin at 2007-03-18 18:11:54

Stephenson is taking the 'oh the critics do not take it seriously' line here, but I think it's actually a case of Stephenson not taking THEM seriously.<br /><br /> <br /><br /> Of course I am somewhat influenced by the fact that I saw 300 and thought it was fascist war porn.<br /><br /> <br /><br /> Actually now that I'm thinking about it I'm sort of furious that Stephenson is conflating that with geek culture.

posted by Robin at 2007-03-19 01:25:01

i saw this on friday, and apart from the costumes (i'm not including the spartans capes and leather underpants) which were well done- i always like to see the bad guys costumes -i pretty much went "eh." and i usually really like geeky things.(i don't want to admit how many times i've watched LOTR.)and the bad effect on the emperors voice was super annoying. but then i didn't get why march of the penguins made so much money either. its just an hour and a half of penguins walking back and forth....<br /><br /> <br /><br /> movie critics are having a bad year, they keep giving terrible reviews to movies which then go on to make a ton of money, like that stupid travolta biker movie, and the even worse looking nicholas cage biker movie. basically if people want to see a movie, they don't really care about critics reviews. <br /><br />

posted by kitty holmes at 2007-03-20 18:55:08