“My movie is more like an opera than a drama. That’s what I say when people say it’s historically inaccurate. You have to understand the convention I’m working in. Everything is at 11.” — 300 director Zack Snyder speaking to MTV.com’s Josh Horowitz.

HE comment: Exactly! Snyder has brilliantly nailed what’s thick and heavy-smoke oppressive about innumerable graphic-novel type films that are primarily about whoa-cool-dude visuals — they’re cranked up to 11, which delivers a certain spirit-bludgeoning, can’t-miss-it-unless-you-happen- to-be-overdosing-on-heroin awesomeness. But “11” is not what life is like. “11” is the universal wank-crank aesthetic of all CG-for-CG’s-sake movies.

Same goes for “10” or “9,” even. Even on an ancient battlefield and even if you’re a manic depressive, most of life tends to happen at intensity levels of “7” or “8”…maybe. For some it’s down to levels of “5” or “6.” It’ll occasionally surge up to “9” or “10” but only in flashes. (Great hand-of-God sex can put you into a “9” or “10” level experience, but I would imagine most people schtup on a “5” or “6” level, at best — especially if the guy is under 20 and has chugged eight or nine beers.) Being in a head-on car collision is a “10”; ditto creating something really exceptional; ditto being in the midst of a bad drug deal like Mark Wahlberg‘s experience in Boogie Nights.

But in the movie-movie worlds of Zack Snyder and other filmmakers who think and dream like him, “11” is the most desirable place to be — a fantasy realm defined and digitally composed by ejaculatory fakery.