Once upon a time, as bards used to begin their histories, saying that a movie reminded you of a comic book was a grave insult. It meant the film wasn't just simplistic or exciting at the expense of its story: It was aimed at Q1. lecherous lowbrows vulgar fibrous who couldn't enjoy anything more deep or challenging.

That changed almost 20 years ago, when "Batman" caught the vision of Frank Miller's "Dark Knight" series. Now a whole school of filmmaking Q2. replicates originates emulates spartans the visual dazzlement of graphic novels while telling stripped-down, adrenaline-rush stories.

Until this week, "Sin City" was held up as the model Q3. scotopia defiance fixity adaptation of a graphic novel, with real actors playing out stories against a Q4. phantasmagoric chimeric surreal squeal background. Like "Sin City," the pulse-pounding "300" filmed humans against a green screen, then inserted settings and effects via computer. But "300" is a huge step forward in visually sophisticated storytelling.

Director Zack Snyder, who Q5. slashed steeped mended healed to prominence three years ago with a gory overhaul of "Dawn of the Dead," is back in remake territory: "300" follows in the sandals of "The 300 Spartans," a 1962 drama about Greek warriors who held off a Persian army at Thermopylae in 480 B.C.

This version is to the last one what an H-bomb is to a Q6. stucco mortar unfix mucilage : louder, scarier, grander, more mind-blowing in every way. You couldn't say the script by Snyder, Kurt Johnstad and Michael Gordon is Q7. profound cavernous obvious fathomable or historically true, but it provides a Q8. ramshackle sturdy ailing frail skeleton for the archetypal story and extraordinary special effects.

Snyder and his team build patiently toward the Q9. clangor wingding dustup drone of sword on shield. We meet Spartan King Leonidas (Gerard Butler), shaped 30 years before by his ancestors into a patriotic fighting machine; his queen (Lena Headey), who tries to rouse the city in support after Leonidas and his 300 dig in; and Theron (Dominic West), the senator who Q10. espouse divorce yoke vows support in exchange for her body. (The movie identifies him early on as a traitor, thus throwing away potential suspense.)

Two months ago, the United Nations Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change gave us chapter and verse on the science of global warming. And now the new IPCC report spells out the effect this heating of the Earth will have on the planet's Q1. terrains inhabitantsillahies proletariats

This Q2. amalgams dissolution coalescence synthesis of the work of 2,500 scientists tells us that climate change already is having a significant effect on our environment. Animals, plants and water systems are under pressure now. The IPCC also highlights a Q3. veiled discernible perceivable palpable impact on human societies. But it is in its predictions that the report is most worrying. It argues that about a third of Earth's species face a greater risk of vanishing if global temperatures rise 3.6 degrees above the average of the 1990s. Ecosystems in areas of Q4. titian chimeric rubicund coral reef, sea ice, tundra and boreal forests are under serious threat.

The IPCC also argues that Q5. abrogation desertificationannulment scourge drought and rising sea levels will affect billions of people. Africa, home to the poorest people on the planet, will be hardest hit. Some 75 million to 200 million more people there will be exposed to water shortages and crop failure. It estimates that some African nations might have to spend 5 percent to 10 percent of their gross domestic product on adapting to climate change. Small island communities will also be at severe risk. A sea-level rise is expected to Q6. exacerbate ruffle rave mitigate flooding, storm surges, coastal erosion and other hazards faced by such communities.

But all human societies will be affected. A runaway thaw of the Himalayan glaciers that feed rivers throughout Asia is likely to cause massive flooding and Q7. copiousness chutes avalanchesscarcity . Higher temperatures will mean heat waves, more severe storms and droughts in North America. Europe will suffer the same. And there also will be a greater risk of flooding as the Alpine glaciers disappear. In Latin America, eastern parts of the Amazon rainforest will turn to Q8. cinnamon sturdy bagatelle savannah .

The politics of the IPCC is complicated because every nation has to sign off on the report. Negotiations in Brussels on the wording of the document have been Q9. encumbered fraught unglued corybantic Scientists have accused certain governments of watering down some of their findings. Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and the United States have been the principal objectors.

Yet it is remarkable that despite such political Q10. meddlinginterfering nebby alecky , the final report is so unequivocal. The IPCC finds that climate change presents one of the most serious threats ever faced by human life on the planet.

Ever since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, hopeful Western observers have seized on Q1. incessant fitful desultory intermittent d signs of revolt as foreshadowing a possible collapse of the regime. Last week, again, it seemed Q2. fret tantalizingly b badger flout possible that Iran might become the latest country to re-enact the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine, or the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon. Angry drivers set fire to at least at dozen gas stations after the government announced gasoline rationing.

The rationing has been accompanied by a crackdown, including the arrest of some American-Iranian scholars and opposition figures, and the reappearance of harsh morality police in the streets. Surely, logic would dictate that Iranians won't stand for such Q3. pinions bridle repression C aplomb indefinitely. Many are well-educated, young and westernized, facing a Q4. primitive adorned bleak C spare future in an economy run by religious zealots.

Regime change isn't likely any time soon. The government's reaction, after all, is also a measure of its ability to crush protest through Q5. brutality a benevolence savageness cruelness , But, as the U.S. and its allies struggle to counter Iran's nuclear ambitions, the moment is a reminder of two important considerations.

        1.First, if military options for eliminating Iran's nuclear program are Q6. trifling feeble scarce C destitute , options for affecting its economy are not. That OPEC's second leading oil exporter had to ration gasoline speaks Q7. eloquently a sumptuously cogently unimpressively of its vulnerability.

2. Second, if Iran's discontented factions aren't pushed into the regime's arms by outside threats, there's a reasonable chance that given the means, they eventually will dispose of the ayatollahs. If so, Iranian nuclear weapons would look less Q8. appalling imperative spooky menacing d Thirty years ago, Iran was a U.S. ally, and absent religious leadership, it would have many reasons to be one again.

With bombing looking Q9. problematic a toilsome operose mootable how best to push those levers is increasingly a source of debate.

The obvious tool is rigid international trade sanctions, but Russia and China, whose cooperation is essential, have steadily resisted U.S. and European efforts to impose them.

That failure has given birth to efforts to stir the Iranian opposition, as well as other proposals for an aggressive response short of bombing. Former senator Fred Thompson, the undeclared Republican presidential contender, got some attention recently by urging a blockade.

But blockades or Q10. wantonly flagrantly b unabashedly brazenly , funding opposition groups can backfire. Like families, no nation likes to be threatened from the outside, no matter how unpleasant its leaders, and every measure shows Iranians reflecting those sentiments.