Guess that's the end of the epic movie revival....

[Jack Rabbit]

Eh. I don't know, I enjoyed King Arthur for what is was worth.

Troy, I hated, because I'm a big fan of the Illiad. I don't think you pull off a good adaptation of the stroy without the gods. Sure, they had Achilles' ambiguous mother figure...but in no way was it certain she was actually the goddess Thesis.

I always had a fantastic vison of Achilles battling the rivers, running across the plains of Troy, chasing Apollo.

 

[Leto Atrides]

As for 300... I agree with exactly what DACrowe said and take it a step further and say it's actually scary how popular it is. It promotes the exact opposite of what the civilized male is suppose to be. Seriously the King(forget his name) in 300 is simply portrayed as some testerone driven alpha-male, he's given absolutely no real reason for not working with the Persians other than pride. The woman are nothing more than sexual fodder, who's only contribution is being used for sex. I like how purdy the film is but it's story is severly lacking...

I agree that if people were really taking the content seriously it would be a bad thing, but I think that you're overestimating how much people do. I'd venture to say as many as 90% of people that like it do so for the visual style and action only. Either people don't care about plot in movies in general, or they (which is where I am) just ignored this one because it was bad. I personally just acknowledged this wasn't an actually good movie and judged it on its own merits, i.e. style.

And in fairness, the Spartans (well, Greeks in general) were really pretty arrogant, and women's role in Spartan society were mostly sex-object/baby-maker, if they weren't slaves.

 

[Leto Atrides]

Remakes in space are always cool.

I beg to differ, and offer Dracula 3000 as proof.

 

[Movies205]

I agree that if people were really taking the content seriously it would be a bad thing, but I think that you're overestimating how much people do. I'd venture to say as many as 90% of people that like it do so for the visual style and action only. Either people don't care about plot in movies in general, or they (which is where I am) just ignored this one because it was bad. I personally just acknowledged this wasn't an actually good movie and judged it on its own merits, i.e. style.

And in fairness, the Spartans (well, Greeks in general) were really pretty arrogant, and women's role in Spartan society were mostly sex-object/baby-maker, if they weren't slaves.

Valid enough

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

What ruined Troy for me was that there was such an obvious attempt to try to make Helen & Paris look like heroes (true love wins the day and all that) when they were really selfish brats that sacrificed thousands of people and in the case of Paris his entire country and family just so they could fulfill their own desires. That these two survived to live their lives in peace while leaving two broken armies in their wake annoyed me no end.

 

[Obsidian]

The director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven is brilliant. Not as good as Scott's previous epic, the masterpiece known as Gladiator, but still a great and underrated movie thanks to studio interference by Fox (surprise, surprise!) by thrusting Bloom on Scott and even after making that work cutting his 3:10 opus down to 2:15 for theatrical run.

The rest are either okay (Troy) or suck (everything else).

Oh well.

I concur. Thanks to the DC, Eva Green's Sybilla is the most developed and most tragic leading lady in a historical epic.

Kudos to Scott for being one of the only directors in this lifetime to make 2 great historical epics.

 

[Dr. Fate]

What ruined Troy for me was that there was such an obvious attempt to try to make Helen & Paris look like heroes (true love wins the day and all that) when they were really selfish brats that sacrificed thousands of people and in the case of Paris his entire country and family just so they could fulfill their own desires. That these two survived to live their lives in peace while leaving two broken armies in their wake annoyed me no end.

That's definitely another knock against the film.

 

[Lighthouse]

I thought Gladiator was completely overrated. Have no idea why people think that deserved best picture Oscar.

 

[Speedball]

I beg to differ, and offer Dracula 3000 as proof.

That's a sequel to the countless Dracula films out there though.
Lost in Space is a remake of Swiss Family Robinson, which was what I was thinking of. (The TV show, not the movie, though I love the movie too.t

 

[Speedball]

What ruined Troy for me was that there was such an obvious attempt to try to make Helen & Paris look like heroes (true love wins the day and all that) when they were really selfish brats that sacrificed thousands of people and in the case of Paris his entire country and family just so they could fulfill their own desires. That these two survived to live their lives in peace while leaving two broken armies in their wake annoyed me no end.

Paris didn't survive in the real story though, but Agememnon did. I personally enjoy the film, but I hate the inaccuracy of pretty much all of it. They messed with the story, threw out the involvement of the gods, and the sets were inaccurate to how they really would have looked in their time.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

I had some cool ideas for an animated remake of Jason and the Argonauts where it's set in deep space. It'd be called "Argonaut."

 

[Leto Atrides]

That's a sequel to the countless Dracula films out there though.
Lost in Space is a remake of Swiss Family Robinson, which was what I was thinking of. (The TV show, not the movie, though I love the movie too.t

Yeah, I know there are good ones, I was just being a smartass. Battle Beyond the Stars isn't bad, though obviously not as good as what it's a remake of (Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven).

But sweet Jesus is Dracula 3000 bad.

 

[SolidSnakeMGS]

It promotes the exact opposite of what the civilized male is suppose to be.

I didn't realize movies were educational tools for how to live. I thought they were a form of escape and sometimes a means to show us worlds we don't know.

 

[Jack Rabbit]

I didn't realize movies were educational tools for how to live. I thought they were a form of escape and sometimes a means to show us worlds we don't know.

Sure, if you take everthing you see in a film for face value.

They aren't just a form of entertainment, they're also an ART FORM.

 

[SolidSnakeMGS]

Sure, if you take everthing you see in a film for face value.

They aren't just a form of entertainment, they're also an ART FORM.

What in the world are you talking about??

 

[Rac]

The Gerry Butler/Stellan Skårsgard Beowulf & Grendel came out couple of years ago. I think it counts in this "epic" movie wave of 2000's.

The Last Samurai too, maybe?

 

[Jack Rabbit]

What in the world are you talking about??

Movies can send a message about the human condition, society, war, anything, just as effective as any other medium.

Films aren't just sources of entertainment, as you implied.

 

[Jack Rabbit]

The Gerry Butler/Stellan Skårsgard Beowulf & Grendel came out couple of years ago. I think it counts in this "epic" movie wave of 2000's.

The Last Samurai too, maybe?

The Last Samurai...eh. On the fence.

Beowulf & Grendel, I don't really think so.

 

[SolidSnakeMGS]

Movies can send a message about the human condition, society, war, anything, just as effective as any other medium.

Films aren't just sources of entertainment, as you implied.

No, wrong, I didn't imply anything. I've always thought of movies as art, so don't act like you know me when you don't, mmmk?

Its just he was talking about 300 -- A FANTASY MOVIE -- as if it had a wrong message or something.

 

[Jack Rabbit]

I didn't realize movies were educational tools for how to live. I thought they were a form of escape and sometimes a means to show us worlds we don't know.

That dosen't imply somethng?

Okay.

 

[Catman]

You could count 300, but that would be a neo-epic.

You and your fancy words.

JFK (albeit that was a good movie) Oliver Stone is insane and gets off on crazed theories

Crazed theories?! He was right about most of it!

 

[Mr. Socko]

Beowulf may suck just like Polar Express.

 

[Leto Atrides]

Beowulf may suck just like Polar Express.

Since when did Polar Express suck? And what does that have to do with Beowulf?

 

[Movies205]

That dosen't imply somethng?

Okay.

Ol'Jack I find myself inclined to agree with you again. Movies are not just for entermainment or more precisely they are entertaining since they show us how to live life through other people's lives... You ever think about this? Life is fully of strife yet are form of escape is to watch other people's strife, why? To see if are lives match up to the "correct" values. Every film no matter what is telling us how life is... Any film that isn't probably isn't worht the time of day.

300 was a well crafted film, I have to hand it that in terms of production values. However the story was crap because it's a rather sad and piss-poor view of how life is and it showed by it's lack of any real characterization. However it does present the opposite side of the coin that movies can indeed over-come teh short-comigns of a poor story with visuals/style as Leto Atrides pointed out early but these films are few and far between and have to present some gimmick no other film presents. And for me well 300 didn't pack the punch due to the story that it has for others.

 

[PowersOfMind]

I heard the exact opposite. I heard that Scott was mad that Fox wanted/ and did the film cut down. It was a stupid move on their part too because once I saw the Director's Cut I was screaming at my tv "Fox you a**holes how could you cut out so much story from this film!"
The Director's Cut is brilliant. A masterpeice. As one would expect from the man who made Gladiator. I actually think Bloom did a good job.