A straight-forward movie with plenty of testosterone. NOT an invitation to invade 21st-century Iran.

Rating: Null/10 (27 August 2007)

Regarding the criticism of this movie, much of it seems to stem from Iranians, but also whining liberals and other anti-war Utopians who claim that this is a pro-war/pro-Bush movie. (I wish it were! ALL recent political Hollywood films are anti-Bush.) To actually take a story such as this, based on a comic-book - regardless of the historical aspect which is almost irrelevant here, used just as a backdrop - and find right-wing political propaganda in it is tantamount to taking one's own paranoia and elevating it to the level of godhood. This is just a fun action-fantasy yarn. Bleedin'-heart leftists need to take their medication, i.e. calm their fragile nerves.
To all of you who see Bush in every bush, a piece of advice: do not nurture your paranoia with such tender-loving care. Give it a rest now and again. Wake up and smell the real world around you. The way to succeed in this is to just say no to drugs (apart from the prescribed medication for left-wing paranoiacs) and Michael Moore...
I loved the unique visual look of the movie; unlike most sci-fi or fantasy spectacles today where blue/green dominate, here we have plenty of gray, a refreshing change. The machismo wasn't pathetic or stereotypical, but seemed raw, and VERY fortunately there were no effeminate girls like Brad Pitt, Di Crapio, Ryan Philippe, Tobey Maguire, Jack Gyllenhaal, Tom Cruise or Matt Damon to dilute that aspect hence making a joke of the whole movie in the process. Any of these guys is perfect for playing gay cowboys, and one of them even has, but please keep these pansies away from movies about men. Real men were cast here to play real men  which is nowadays not only NOT standard practice, but has become as rare as Tim Robbins's brain cells. This was crucial. With a different kind of casting this would have been just another 21st-century big-budget Hollywood piece of crap. To be more precise, I thought that the casting of Gerard Butler did the movie tons of good. I've never seen him before nor even heard of him. Not only was he credible as the ultimate alpha male leader, but I liked his mannerisms and the way he spoke. Occasionally he reminded me of Mel Gibson, for some reason, although his presence is far greater than Mel's. (Mel tends to be a giggling buffoon too often.)
My favourite line in the movie was when Leonidis quipped "We've been sharing our culture with you all morning" (to Xerxes).
The battle scenes were very stylish. There was a certain elegance in the way the 300 cut their enemies into little pieces  and I hope I don't sound like a psychopath here. I wasn't too surprised that this director did such a good job with the film. I saw his "Dawn of the Dead", a horror-movie remake; that movie also had some rather memorable action sequences, especially very early on.
As far as the non-battle scenes are concerned, I would say the most enjoyable ones were Leonidis's first encounter/dialogue with Xerxes, and the moment when the former's wife stabs the Spartan traitor in the Council (that was totally unexpected). A good aspect was that the movie was so simple plot-wise. No unnecessary bla-bla, because this is not the kind of movie where that would have been suitable. It is straight-forward, just like the attitude/mind-set of the 300.