My kick ass boss treated us all to the premiere showing of Frank Miller's 300 at the Sacramento IMAX (it feels weird typing that with a capital "i") theater last Friday. I haven't been able to stop thinking about the movie since I left the theater. It was that good.

Bare in mind, my opinion may not necessarily be shared by regular movie goers. It's not often that I get to see a big, bad action movie in the theater... on opening night... on a huge ass screen. I believe the first Lord Of The Rings movie was the last one I saw. Before that, I think it was Robocop. Certainly, some of the wow factor may be attributed to this, and the fact that the IMAX screen is 6 freaking stories high.

I've always been an off-and-on again graphic novel buff. Last year I got heavily into Alan Moore and blasted through V For Vendetta and The Watchmen, then veered off to Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Night Returns. I scoured the internet for my next read and 300 instantly became the logical choice. A graphic novel about the epic Battle of Thermopylae, with monsters and other fabulous graphic novel embellishments added for good measure. This was a no brainier.

I had a bit of trouble tracking down a copy, and then I found out I was loosing my job, so I got a little distracted and never got around to reading it. Once settled in my new job, I heard the movie was coming, and meant to get a copy before seeing it, but still failed to do so.

The movie certainly played out like I had pictured the book being, but I was surprized by how simple the actual story was. The visuals, costumes and cast were very true to the frames I have seen from the book. I can only imagine the dialog and was as accurate.

After the movie, I was glued to the internet, soaking up everything I could find out about the Battle of Thermopylae. With all the monsters and mocheesemo in the movie, I was suprized that the story seemed to be more accurate than I thought—even down to some of the dialog.

The basic gist: A king leads 300 of his best soldiers (and some 2,000+ of neighboring communities) into a strategic battle to defend the freedom of Greece against a 250,000-2,000,000 member strong Persian army, despite the laws of his state that prevent him from doing so. Despite the ludicrous odds, he successfully holds them off for three days, and ultimately ends up dying in battle with his men. This is the true to life part.

I've heard there is a little controversy over how much the movie was meant to speak to or against our presence in Iraq. I can't speculate as to what the director's intentions about his film adaptation of this 1998 graphic novel (originally inspired by real Greek battle in 480 BC), but I certainly can't picture George Bush leading anyone into battle and dying at their sides to defend any kind of freedom. If there were a side that he was supposed to be on in this film, I am sad to say that it probably wouldn't be the skins.

300 is an awesome story of loyalty, and can make you feel like a turd about being a flabby modern man. The high regard in which the Spartans held their woman was an extremely bad ass nuance to the story.

I can't wait to finally buy the book and tear through it.