Hello folks,
I just watched the trailer for 300. I don't read comic books and therefore didn't know that X-Men was based on a comic book. I also didn't know that Sin City was based on a graphic novel (ie a comic book by adults for adults). Because of Sin City, I do know a little about Frank Miller. Someone told me that V for Vendetta was also based on a graphic novel, I have no idea if that is true or not. I did look up the director for 300, Zack Snyder. He directed the 2004 version of Dawn of the Dead and has two upcoming movies that he is scheduled to helm, Watchmen, and Rainbow Six. Rainbow Six is a team-based video game if I remember correctly, and I don't know anything about Watchmen. I don't know how Dawn of the Dead was as a movie, as I do not attend nor watch horror genre films unless they are horror in the Gothic sense of the word. I really don't like the hack and slash films. Anyway, back to the trailer. It looked to me like Gladiator meets Lord of the Rings (Oliphants with Rhino horns) with the Hunt for Red October's choral background music. I doubt I'll go see it.
I am looking forward to Ghost Rider who was really cool to me when he drove a chopper back in the early 1970s. I have more than a sneaking suspicion that Ghost Rider will be a stinker. It was supposed to be released in July or August of this year, 2006, during the lucrative Summer movie watching season. Instead it is coming out in February 2007 of all times (Daredevil also came out in February and it was...not very good).
Anyway, I hope that 300 is a better film than the trailer portrays it. I remember the original trailer for the movie Aliens, it made the movie look like a bleaker version of Alien (a horror film in the truest sense of the word, instead of the horror/action movie that Aliens is). It was pulled from all theaters after the first Friday to Sunday showing of the trailer and the prints were to be destroyed (normally the prints must be sent back to the distribution company (Fox, Paramount, Sony, Disney, etc). I wished that I had kept it.
The only trailer that I, or someone who looked like me, kept (shhhh!!! not necessarily completely legal, but I was just below the 18 year old mark at the time) was also one that was supposed to be destroyed, but, it didn't have to be returned to the distribution company, was for the original Tim Burton directed Batman. I believe it was either the first or second trailer that was sent out to the movie theater chains. It might have been the first one since I *think* that it was a "teaser" trailer (you know the type, "Michael Keaton...Jack Nicholson...Jack Palance...together in...BATMAN the Movie...Directed by Tim Burton"...then the Batman symbol is shown and the trailer ends). The movie came out in 1989 (doesn't seem like it's been 17 years now) so I was 24, but don't tell anyone!
Movie companies are SO understanding about making a legal backup copy of a work that you purchased. Making a backup copy of a work that you own is not legal anymore if there is any encryption scheme that has to be bypassed to make the backup copy. This is due to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act; now the United States has the most onerous copyright laws in the entire WORLD!!
Sorry for the rant, I am a librarian at a university and I am in charge of the Media Department, and run into copyright problems at the beginning of every term. There is the Fair Use doctrine that was developed by the Supreme Court of the US, but the DMCA "killed it real dead." It is a headache that won't go away. A person will likely get away with bypassing the CSS encryption scheme on DVDs or the Macrovision quasi-encryption scheme on VHS tapes, but a public university would be nailed quicker than lightning so that they can be make an "example" of what happens when you cross the film distribution companies. You can thank Jack Valente and that shiny (no good two) faced Walt Di$ney company for the DMCA.
Rant over, I feel better now.
Regards,
Chris
