Quite satisfying: Great action and visuals without the real history

Rating: 9/10 (10 March 2007)

Based off of Frank Miller's graphic novel, 300 is about the spartan warriors who fought and gave their lives at the battle of Thermapolye against impossible odds of the 1,000,000 man Perisan army. For starters, this is not, I repeat not a documentary or historically correct to the battle, for it is based off a comic book.
Now, after saying that, the film gives a very bizarre, but creative new look of movie-making. Having not seeing Sin City, (which was the creators of this), I was both flabbergasted and impressed by its unusual feat of movie-making. Instead of just having regular color and a realistic look, the picture has a high quality of tinting, especially of the background scenery. For instance if the film was st nighttime the colorization of the film had dark colors flooding the screen, and when it was bright in the day, the coloring was bright. The color also had this affect in the buildings and landscape as well throughout the film. Personally, this gave a very godlike and mythical look of the film. It was amazing to even look at! Also added to this amazement, the film has some of the best CGI and animation I have seen since The Return of the King. The visuals were great in both the battle sequences and in other places, throughout the film. Along with some great make-up jobs of the variety of creatures (which were many), to the artsy production design. Even more exciting was the battles.
It took about a half hour for them to arrive, but when they come, there is no end to the action-oriented gallons of blood and maimed bodies that filled the screen (sorry for the squeamish). Although there is much slaughter in the film, it maybe exciting to the blood and gore fans, but the violence is depicted rather unrealistically like a video game, for each Spartan seems to kill hundreds and hundreds of Persians without even receiving a single injury. It is rather cartoonish and stylized, but at least holds a hint of reality to it. Basically, expect much blood, that doesn't even look real, its more computer generated blood splatters and hacked off limbs flying around in slow-motion, like Kill Bill rather than the horror of Braveheart or Gladiator. It is action oriented, and not too painful to watch, but rather long lasting.
The acting was very good. Gerald Butler, once again proves to be a talented actor as the courageous and bloodthirsty, but humane and moral King Leonardis. There weren't too many other recognizable faces, but they all did equally as well, bringing forth likable and believable characters that fight and face their doom without fear.
However, its flaw was the story. It was a simple story of war, courage, and destiny, but it did not broaden too much, nor did have a strong, emotional effect like Braveheart. It still held some emotion to it, but not much. Besides, there isn't too much dialog to the film and it also holds some hokey elements that drifted from it anyway. It's an action flick with great effects/cinematography and amazing battle sequences with a pounding a hard core rock soundtrack. There's no heavy history to it like Alexander, nor it has a heavy moral tale like Gladiator.
It's a great diversion that left me satisfied. ***1/2 out of **** When you want an action film that satisfies the need of a diversion, I highly suggest 300!