What a load of tripe

Rating: 5/10 (6 March 2007)

Saw it a preview in the Lincoln Center IMAX on March 5, 2007.
Blustering, bombastic film that mainly serves to show one small fighting battalion wage war against a million-strong host. While it looks good, I couldn't help snickering at various points throughout the film. King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) spends the vast majority of his on screen time bellowing--an unfortunate use of a fine actor. Most characters are one-dimensional with the exception of the Queen (Lena Headey). By the halfway point, I couldn't wait for the Spartans to die.
The bad parts:
*There are far too many scenes of billowing fabric.
*The Spartans don't have a scratch on their bodies until the very end. *The Persians are either Monsters or don't look like Persians.
*There is no explanation for why King Xerxes is 7 feet tall and dressed like a belly dancing transvestite.
*The gratuitous nude breasted oracle scene - so obviously filmed underwater.
*The bellowing *King Leondias weird beard -- the weirdness really obvious in profile
*The glorification of a militaristic culture that gladly committed infanticide
*The battle scenes had no suspense--here come the Persians, watch the outnumbered Spartans kill them all. Here comes another wave, watch the Spartans kill them all. BORING
*The gratuitous amputee scenes in the Persian camp
*The horrible generic thrash rock used in some of the battle scenes
*The annoying Spartan warrior yell.
*The rip off of Brad Pitt's leaping thrust from Troy (used twice!)
*The inexplicably ugly and diseased Ephors who live on top of mountain that doesn't have an accessible route.
Looks very pretty but even that got boring after a while. So glad I got to see it for free.