Forget the criticism, go and see the movie and judge for yourself.

Rating: 8/10 (13 April 2007)

I think most people writing here are missing the point of this movie. It is not intended to be historically accurate as it is an adaptation of a comic. In comics you tend to have a plot that essentially boils down to 'good versus evil' and in the case of 300 the 'good' side is played by the Spartans and the 'bad' is played by the Persians. As in most comics the good side are portrayed as being superhuman with the evil side as the complete opposite. And in the movie this was very evident in the hugely muscled, highly moral freedom loving Spartans vs the asexual, amoral, drug taking tyrants that were the Persians. Now my point is that this is in no way relevant to real life in fact the Spartans did keep slaves (this is how spartan men could devote themselves to training as warriors) and so it is fatuous to claim that this movie intended to be taken seriously as an historical epic....it is a comic book adapted to the big screen. You may as well complain that Superman should be criticised because people really can't fly or that the planet krypton doesn't exist.
As for why I gave 300 8 out of 10 my reasons are simple. The movie contains some powerful acting, amazing visual effects and was all in all a very entertaining and enjoyable movie. Yes it is shallow, the plot is simply '300 Spartans die' and you already know the ending. But my advice is simple, put this to one side, sit back and enjoy 300 for what it is.