The worst film i have ever seen.

Rating: 1/10 (25 February 2007)

I was unlucky enough to have caught a screening of this as the "Surprise Movie" at the Dublin International Film Festival. To say that I, and the majority of the audience I spoke to (those who didn't walk out half way through) were disappointed would be an overwhelming understatement. This film just doesn't know what it is - caught between a tongue-in-cheek parody of Gladiator-type sandals & swords epics and having aspirations of being an appropriate examination of the bravery and heroics of the three hundred Spartan warriors that defeated 300,000 Persian soldiers at the Battle of Thermopylae. But, apparently this film judges its audience incapable of understanding this oh-so-complex title and merely refers to it as the "Battle of the Hot Gate"..nice. The story itself is amazing, which makes it so disappointing that it was dealt with in this hammy-handed CGI-heavy, atrociously scripted mess. The jokes are few and far between, the violence was done ten times better in other Frank Miller-inspired creations such as Sin City and the acting (with the exception perhaps of Lena Headey who impresses as the tough Spartan Queen Gorgo) is cringe inducing. Exhibit A: "This is where we fight. This is where they die"...shrudder. Frank Miller's continued obsession with disfiguration and amputees is an equally disturbing and unappealing factor that perpetuates the feeling of queasiness the acting and dodgy effects bring about. "300" had serious potential but the end result is god awful. AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE.