Not impressed but learned a few things from this movie

Rating: 3/10 (8 September 2007)

The movie 300 - How I hated to be a loser working at a fast food chain store forever thus decided to become a successful Hollywood director even if for a short while (yet I failed!)
Or, what I learned from a movie that did not impress me even a bit! (It also failed to annoy and offend me, if that was the intention of its makers! OK, it did cause me to react and write this down though.)
If one is so in love with the business of film-making that one is ready to do anything for it at any costs then one could as well try making some "decent and humble" porn you know, without having to stress so stubbornly on history and cultures of the past or present in the name of comic and entertainment. Porn can be "entertaining" also, educational even, and it makes good money too! (Or does it these days with 'so many hands in the business' on the Internet?)
Curiously, as a hard to impress Persian who had lost his trust and liking in his own country and culture for a long time, I have to admit now that I am a little bit moved if not impressed! I think I have to review my opinion about my homeland as well as the entire area of the Middle East.
Yes, I know, this is not a historical movie, only a famous and successful comic story turned into a mediocre film, for entertainment purposes alone, but please, you are using actual historical figures, names and events in the movie, which is fine but then you are also demonetizing certain characters in the story while turning certain other ones into super-human divine beings in a 'fun movie' that is not supposed to be very serious. But you are doing it very seriously!
As for the sfx of this movie, contrary to all remarks (negative or positive) made about this movie that nonetheless admired its CGI and technique, I should say, "good, but I've seen better indeed!"
Why do Persians in the movie dress in a way that resembles Arabs? Nothing wrong with Arabs as a great nation in their own right (and in olden times, an ally of Persians or other nations in hard times too once in a while) but comparing any nation to another in a clumsy way, and to undermine one or the other in such a manner as this one is an insult to both!
The depiction of Xerxes as a nine-foot tall (eight and three-quarters to be exact!) monster yet an androgyny super-human figure, to probably de-humanize him rather than to deliver a godly shape, although a little bit too harsh, it seems not so far from a symbolic representation of a non-democratic Eastern state headed by some 'un-manly' and autocratic sovereignty. But as some others have put it so rightly too, and this movie also does it, the more democratic Western states in comparison, have not been doing any better!
Something that even many Persians and Easterners fail to understand about God-Kings of the Achamenid dynasty (to which Xerxes belonged also) is their 'inner goal of attaining a state of asexuality' so to say. This is probably what the makers of this movie also failed to realize although they somehow did manage to transfer the image in so bizarre a manner no matter how unsuccessful they were at delivering the original idea.
Now, something we know as "mysticism", which might as well have been a 'gift' going from the West to the East (Plato?) and not vice versa in those times, being kind of ridiculed and even hated in so bizarre a manner in this movie, is something that calls for a deeper digging by psychology and sociology scholars as well as other experts in related fields.
Not very much by contrast to how Xerxes is pictured as an other-worldly demonic figure in the movie 300, King Leonidas personae and looks resembles more an Arab Muslim rebel from the brutal Palestinian Hamas or savage Iranian (Persian) Hizbollahy forces or a desperate Iraqi insurgent (albeit for a rather handsome one one has to admit!) rather than a brave and self-sacrificing Westerner Spartan who cares so much about democracy and freedom that commits an undemocratic and most politically incorrect act of pushing the delegates from a potentially dangerous and enemy country into the well just because "his queen, his wife, his love," nod-approves him to do so!
There have been Greek guys who did not like the movie and felt offended in more than one way! There are people from other nations too who did not like this movie at all. Just check their comments on this very list.
Check this link, and other posted short videos by some Greek and Persians on some YouTube pages or elsewhere:
Greek Answer to Hollywood nuts (300 the movie)! http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=FhOXOnEqWdY
Or check this one too; only please forgive the rather poor English used in it:
330-movie, With respect to my Greek friends  This is Persia! http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=FhOXOnEqWdY
Perhaps this would be worth a mentioning in here too:
Last Stand of the 300 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0892737/
For the worth of it, Xerxes attack on Greece and the West was a big mistake on the Persians behalf since day one anyway and eventually they had to undergo a great defeat paying for their own mistake. (As a non-religious Persian who follows certain morals and belief patterns anyway, I am proud and happy about this fact also! One learns a lesson everyday. And at times, one learns it the hardest way!)
Sorry Zack Snyder, you won't make a good director! Not the one you imagine yourself to be at least. You'll learn your lesson too most probably!