Review: 300

In short: 300 was bad-ass…

The movie is based on a graphic novel by Frank Miller (of Sin City fame…), which was based on the Battle of Thermopylae where King Leonidas of Sparta led 300 warriors into a hopeless battle against hordes of Persians led by King Xerxes, eventually paving the way for a more united Greece to defeat Persia in the Battle of Plataea.

Much like Sin City, 300 was styled like a comic book, but to a lesser degree. This story had a coherent plot that flowed through the duration of the film (unlike City). The effects effortlessly transitioned between all-digital and all-real, yet relied heavily on a green screen for the majority of the movie. The acting was rather good, despite having very, very few “big name actors”…actually, there were people you’d recognize, but certainly no one I knew by name… Either way, the fight scenes were very cool, using the obligatory “slow motion” fights frequently, but not that often… It was certainly a violent movie, but that wasn’t unexpected.

The thing that grabbed me the most was the sense of “legend” that the movie evoked. To many Greeks who heard of the battle later, they were inspired to fight for their freedom and democracy as they never had before. Hence, you could imagine that some “details” were exaggerated to a certain degree. For example, Xerxes was noticeably taller than Leonidas. As in…giant-sized… The elephants and rhinos were ten times the size of real ones. You get the idea that, in describing the battle to later generations, the details got a bit more glorious and heroic…and the movie is based more on the exaggerations rather than what actually may or may not have happened. This is how legends are born, after all.

My one complaint was that the Queen seemed like she was used a bit more heavily than she should have been. She was close to Leonidas and stayed behind to try and rally support amongst the Spartan elders, to get more soldiers sent to help Leonidas. I guess her character was being used to try and connect Sparta with the battle, allowing for breaks between the fight scenes…but in the end, her efforts just seemed to be kinda useless… I’m not really sure what her purpose was in the whole deal, besides making some connection between the politics in Sparta and the battle at hand.

So yeah, it was pretty awesome, methinks…well-deserving the $70 million (est.) it took in on opening weekend. If you like action movies, this’ll fit the bill quiite nicely.