Short of Perfection

Rating: 8/10 (15 April 2007)

Two things annoyed me most about the film (and hence the 2 missing marks). First was the over-the-top rhetoric and all those hyperbolas about Freedom and Justice. I think the filmmaker did an excellent job in portraying visually the fact that the civilised world (symbolised by Spartans) was standing up to an evil oppressive system (symbolised by Xerxes and his army of mutants). There was no need for the dialogue to refer to it CONTINUOUSLY. I'm sure the audience didn't need that amount of indoctrination. And referring to Thermopylae as a battle "against mysticism" was a bit outrageous, given that everyone, including Greeks, had some sort of mystic system.
The second thing that annoyed me was the somewhat low-key ending. I think that a character such as Leonidas deserved a more fitting death. A cool battle to the last, and only then should we have had the rain of arrows that slaughters him. What we had is a very short battle that pales next to the initial ones, and so leaves one slightly disappointed. Together with this I found the soundtrack to be slightly limited. Personally I would have added some more rock riffs.
Other than that it was a good epic film. The battles in the first half of the film were visually stunning, with time speeding up and slowing down to achieve better effect. Good Good stuff.
Let us hope that the lessons learnt at Thermopylae will never be forgotten.