Thanks.

Dagger

Michael Jackson
1958-2009

Farrah Fawcett

1947 – 2009

Being a fan of Neil Gaiman’s written works (Sandman, Death: The High Cost of Living, Mirrormask, Stardust), I wanted to see what treatment he made to this classic Anglo-Saxon lore.

I watched it on digital 3D last night, and there’s not much Gaiman changed to the original core plot. Some elements of the movie deviated from the original, which all came together in the end of the movie. They [Gaiman and screenwriter Roger Avary] did, in the beginning of the film, established how Beowulf will be portrayed. To me, it set the whole predicament of the movie, and I wasn’t really surprised at the end of it.

As a gamer,  the CGI movie would sometimes take me for a loop. I kept looking at my hands seeing if I had my game console gamepad with me. I felt at times like I was playing a Final Fantasy game.

But overall, the movie was good. The story was treated fairly in my opinion, albeit if one reason for it being all CGI was to convince the public that there has been great advances since Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, I didn’t see it yet.

Watch it. Enjoy it. Don’t expect it to be anything but a fantasy movie.

The story of 300 is loosely based on the event leading to the Greco-Persian War, where the Spartan King Leonidas I led his army of 300 Spartan soldiers and 6700 allies to hold pass of Thermopylae against the Persian army.

The very thing that I really love about Frank Miller’s drawings is the fact that his style isn’t conventional. His art isn’t common. He is his own.

How he lays out his panels is simply cinematic. This is the reason why it translates so perfectly into the big screen. Find a director that has the respect and loyalty to the original work that Frank Miller does to his every graphic novel, and you get yourself a very fucking awesome visual spectacle. This was proven by Robert Rodriguez when he made Frank Miller’s Sin City, and it has been proven again by the director of 300, Zack Snyder. Of course, it does help when you got the man himself backing you up.

The acting is topnotch, in my opinion. Gerard Butler really impress me as an actor. He is a character actor, because he can become whatever character he plays, and not be Gerard Butler playing as … . And, of course, I might as well mention the beautiful Lena Headey for portraying an enigmatic and strong Gorgo. A strong, powerful woman. A spartan woman. Now that should be something all young women should aspire to become, and not something like a skinny, idiotic Paris Hilton.

When asked by a woman from Attica, ‘Why are you Spartan women the only ones who can rule men?, she [Gorgo] said: ‘Because we are also the only ones who give birth to men.‘

Words to live by.

I recommend this film to anyone who is a fan of the comic book genre, or to anyone who hasn’t even heard of Frank Miller.

I was listening to the song from Evanescence called ‘Lithium’, and it suddenly dawns on me on what it may mean. Well, what it means to me personally.
To me, this is about the relationship between misery and artistry.

Its a cliché, I know. That to be a good artist, to be able to create such beautiful pieces of art, that it has to come from misery.

This is an excerpt from an article written by Meana Kasi of Verge Magazine titled Creativity and Depression:

Many artists suffering from depression say their creativity is fueled and fostered by emotion and angst, by isolation and solitude. The emotions and angst that may be present in the artist’s mind can help shape the work. These emotions can be conveyed creatively, allowing for the term “self-expression” to come up. When suffering from depression, many artists feel they have the opportunity to lose themselves in the work being created, thus allowing their mind to feel some relief from the strains of depression. When this happens, the artist is able to accomplish what many others struggle withæfocusing almost exclusively on the work without distraction.

[read more here.]

Vincent Van Gogh and “Starry Starry Night” comes to mind.

I know I’ve had my shares, where my most artistic is when i am most miserable. Where my heart and soul have been torn apart, is when I can unleash my best.

The lines in the song “I want to stay in love with my sorrow… don’t want to let it go” rings true somehow. Because of the fear that once I become truly happy and content with my life; if misery is gone, so will the artistry.

Think before you act. Or in the case just presented to me, think before you note.