300

I went to see the film "300" Tuesday night. I am going restrict my observations on the film to its use of archetypes. The characters seemed to be detached and wooden. I realize that this is something of the genre of graphic novels noire (the film is based on a graphic novel). The film stays true to that aspect -- to have massively grotesque deformities, totally fearless leaders, perfect warriors, etc.

Personally, I try to fight such absolutes in my writing. I don't have a great artwork to divert attention from the characters. Nor can I write imagery well enough to fill that role. Instead, I like to write about grey characters -- ones driven by personal motivations. To some extent, I am successful. Hell, even Darth Vader had a softer side (well, at least episodes 4-6). One of the many problems I had with episodes 1-3 was the woodeness of the characters. You could almost see them advancing plot elements. "And now Darth Moebius travels to planet Flarg in order to advance plot element x". A funny web site bitching about star wars is here.

I enjoy quite a bit looking at the world through my characters eyes. What would this guy/gal do here? Maybe because I am not the Lone Ranger, I tend to see them driven by their view of the world -- not by some detached perfect course. Such characters are much more compelling to me. Also, I tend to prefer not black and white, but red-green-blue. Three sided conflicts tend to allow more maneuvering for the characters.

Now I need to find the motivation to put more words to the page, er, lcd.