THIS IS... A GUILTY PLEASURE

Rating: 6/10 (20 April 2020)

300 is an absurdly silly film. That being said, it's one that really wants us to take it seriously, but to me at least, it fails to get me properly committed to the film's characters and paper-thin story-line. But hey, at least this movie is stylish. So very, very stylish.
Persians are trying to invade Sparta. Gerard Butler, king of Sparta, doesn't want this to happen. He gets together 300 fierce Spartan warriors to battle the invading Persians. That's your plot. There's few movies I can think of that are actually easier to follow; Memento or Mulholland Drive this ain't. There's a sub-plot involving Butler's wife doing stuff back in the city, but it's a side-story that feels tacked on. One of my biggest issues with the film is the way this added sub-plot frequently kills the pacing of the film, with the cutting between it and the main story never really feeling seamless. Maybe such unnecessary scenes could have been cut, and instead we could've got a bit more character development for the Spartan warriors. So we actually, you know, cared about them as they became attacked by more and more Persian forces as the movie went on.
Some would argue that the movie really doesn't need a plot because the style and action scenes in this movie are very impressive, but I think a compelling narrative and fleshed out characters would've helped make this movie more than just a decent guilty pleasure. I don't always like to compare movies, but I feel 300 does often try really hard to be Gladiator, so I might bounce back and forth a little between the two. Gladiator's actually one of my favourite movies of all time, and would probably even earn a spot in my top 25 favourite films. Like 300, it has thrilling action and a great sense of spectacle (it should be noted though that it is a bigger film than 300- it feels more like a traditional Hollywood epic), but it also had narrative elements that I thought were actually quite strong. I actually cared about Russel Crowe's Maximus (a great performance from Crowe, by the way), and I wanted him to get his revenge on the corrupt piece of work that was Commodus, played extremely well by Joaquin Phoenix. The film gave us a protagonist we wanted to root for, and an antagonist that we really wanted to see brought to justice, and therefore we become invested in the film, and this allows the inevitable final showdown between the two to be extremely intense. Add in a bunch of memorable side characters, notably those played by Richard Harris, Oliver Reed, and Djimon Hounsou, and you have a movie that's elevated from being just another brainless action-packed revenge film to something that I believe is a near-masterpiece.
Gerard Butler's King Leonidas is... slightly harder to care about. He's a fairly flat, slightly arrogant character- look at the way he just ignores his kid in the scene where he leaves for battle. Gerard Butler's no Russel Crowe either, and maybe a better actor could have injected some more likability into the character. And sure, Phoenix did ham it up in Gladiator, but his character was still believable in the film's context. In 300, we get a completely ridiculous central villain who is so over the top it becomes impossible to take him seriously. At all. He is one of the least menacing villains I've ever seen. Almost every thing about him makes me laugh- his theatrical poses, his slow motion yelling, his "bling," his painted-on eye-brows, and his voice, which is about 3 octaves lower than you'd think it would be by just looking at him. Why's he so tall as well? Seriously, this is one of the silliest villains I can recall in any movie I've ever seen.
The rest of the characters are disappointing too- Lena Headey plays the queen as a cold, boring woman, rocking the same facial expression throughout the entire movie. Dominic West is underused here too; he just kind of lurks around making creepy advances towards Headey's character. A few of the 300 Spartans get some character development too, but it's all pretty limited.
I guess I'm being too negative here. There are things about this movie I like, so I'll just finish off the rest of the negatives first. The narration is forced, mostly unnecessary, and goofy as hell. The movie has some humour, but I often can't work out what's intentionally funny and what's unintentionally funny. The slow motion usually works, but sometimes feels gratuitous.
But sometimes this movie can get pretty cool/fun. You can say what you want about the acting, the script, and the lack of truly compelling characters, but Zack Snyder really does inject this film with a whole lot of visual flair. Without the unique style, this film would be almost worthless, and it's the film's main saving grace. It really does look like a comic book in motion, maybe not to the extent of Sin City (a much better film in my opinion), but close. Also, the actions scenes are awesome, and there's quite a lot of them after the first half hour or so. Slow motion, blood spraying, limbs flying everywhere, Persian bodies piling up- it's a spectacle of carnage, and may well have to be seen to be believed. If you go into this film hoping to see a number of awesome, large-scale action sequences, you won't be disappointed. When this movie shows fight scenes, it commits. Those slow motion long shots that show the Spartans advancing towards the Persian forces, dispatching them as they continue to walk, are pretty awe-inspiring. Also, the ending to this movie I'll admit is pretty good. It's meant to have a fairly profound impact on its audience, I think, and it didn't shake me to my core or anything, but it worked. It was a pretty strong ending to the film I guess.
So, final verdict? This movie's a bit of a mixed bag, with strong action scenes and direction, but unremarkable story-telling, characters, and acting. How much you enjoy this movie will probably come down to how much you enjoy its unique visual style, and that is honestly completely subjective. So give it a watch, and even if it's a movie you hate, at least it'll be good for a laugh. I mean seriously, the "TRAITOR! TRAITOR!" scene is Monty Python-esque. So does 300 work as an action movie? Definitely. Does it work as anything more than that? Not really, which is why I can't enjoy it as much as Gladiator, or, to a lesser extent, Braveheart. It's kind of on the same level as Troy: dopey, silly, and shamelessly promoting style over substance. But hey, that's not always a terrible thing, right?