Noteworthy aesthetics beg to compensate for everything else

Rating: 6/10 (7 March 2007)

Thrillingly visceral although noticeably repetitious, this fictionalization details some of the more rock-star moments which occurred during Greece's legendary Battle of Thermopylae. With acute precision, director Zack Snyder brings comic Frank Miller's dark adaptation of this epic war to the screen with a stunning vibrancy and attention to detail that rivals any artistic endeavorers to capture the heat of primitive battle prior. In these sequences of bloody beauty, all but the most estrogen-laden souls should marvel at the technical superiority and arresting direction caught up into capturing heated moments of blood-lust, distinguishing the creatively ambitious battle movie from similar, less splashy fare.
Against longer living aspirations, the insistence on elevating all fighting to such artistic excess simply overwhelms the majority of the movie's plot-forwarding and character-developing instincts, almost making dialog seem superfluous when viewed in succession. Clearly we have a movie here that wishes to balance the dramatic significance these Spartans faced on those fateful days with an accessibility and wow factor just dying to appeal to the young male demographic. The fights remain vibrantly captivating throughout, though retrospect seems to undermine any emotional substance lingering due to the inordinate amount of adolescent pandering found during these artistically excessive sword fights. Likewise, much of the screenplay absolutely pales in comparison to any on-screen fighting, often clumsily filling in silences with repetitious, empty narrative reiterations on notions of pride, warrior spirit, respect, and any other empty sentiment tacked on to give the eye candy a little more supposed relevance.
Still, anyone with a pulse should at least remain mildly engaged throughout the hyper-kinetic, ultra-stylish battle scenes, at least during the first few attacks while the presentation remains fresh. The film tends to devolve further and further into some monster-based fantasy as we go along, but anyone coming into 300 expecting a serious piece of factual storytelling should have already realized they are in the wrong theater. Everyone else, have fun!