Pass the Popcorn! review

Rating: 6/10 (5 March 2014)

Zack Snyder is probably one of the most divisive contemporary directors, with almost all of his movies completely polarizing the audience – and his 2007 box office smash '300′ is no exception. I first saw this movie – based on the Frank Miller comic book of the same name – upon its theatrical release, when I was still a lad, and I quite enjoyed it (as an early teen, who wouldn't?). Fast forward 7 years, I decided to watch it again, to refresh my memory in preparation for the unnecessary sequel – 300: Rise of an Empire. This time I wasn't as satisfied as when I first saw it. Actually, I thought it to be mindless and silly and I'm less enthusiastic about the sequel than ever.
'300′ loosely portrays the Battle of Thermopylae during which the Spartan king Leonidas (Gerard Butler), aided by 300 of his finest soldiers, stood against the mighty Persian empire, ruled by the self proclaimed god-king Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) – and that's pretty much the whole movie. Of course, there are some scenes depicting the Spartan way of life, and a subplot concerning Leonidas' wife, queen Gorgo (Lena Headey), trying to influence the Spartan council to send more soldiers to aid Leonidas, in spite of corrupted councilman Theron's (Dominic West) intentions too keep the army at bay, but all of this is utterly overshadowed by the movie's action sequences.
With its thin plot and extreme historical inaccuracy, it wouldn't be an overstatement to call '300′ a style-over-substance movie. Not that that is necessary a problem, but some people (including myself) may find the movie to be bland if they want something more from a movie, instead of excessive violence nearly all the time, and in return get senseless scenes and poorly developed characters (one of the more prominent characters, played by Vincent Regan, is only called and credited as Captain, and his only character traits are that he has a son, and is a captain). As for the movie's style, '300′ is most famous for its unrestricted use of slow motion, which, to be honest, does look impressive when used correctly. However, more often than not, slow motion is used incorrectly and in certain scenes is simply unnecessary. Due to this incorrect use of slow motion, quite a few scenes in the movie look like excerpts from some music video, which isn't a good thing.
'300′ definitely isn't a horrible movie. Like I said, some action sequences look truly impressive (which should be more than enough for action movie fanatics) and the movie does have the charm of a mindless popcorn flick. In fact, I think '300′ could have been more enjoyable and better if it had been somewhat less serious than it actually was. Without that little special something, '300′, in spite of its cool looking action scenes, some memorable quotes and characters, doesn't really stand the test of repeated viewings, at least not in my case.
Rating: 6/10 Read more reviews at http://passpopcorn.com/