This Was Dreadful

Rating: 1/10 (21 August 2010)

It's relatively high rating notwithstanding - this was dreadful. From beginning to end and everything in between. I have no argument with its bloodiness. Warfare in the ancient world was surely bloody and I have no problem with it being depicted in this way. But it was depicted poorly. The battle scenes were poorly presented and had an overall air of unreality to them and much of this seemed locked in the world of fantasy.
The movie depicts the great Battle of Thermopylae, when the Spartan King Leonidas led a combined army of Spartans and Athenians against the Persians under King Xerxes. The movie is historically accurate to the extent that Leonidas did indeed die in battle against the Persians at Thermopylae. Aside from that this is mostly a muddle. The opening half hour or so showed some depictions of life and military training in Sparta (for Sparta indeed was a highly military culture) and offered some views of how boys in particular would have been raised in this culture. But that recreation of Spartan life cannot overcome the basic conclusion I was forced to, which I share now again - this was dreadful!