A striking example of everything that is wrong with action movies these days

Rating: 3/10 (2 March 2008)

"300" sounded like a great movie. I like spectacle movies, I loved Sin City, so what could go possible wrong with this one. Well, just about everything. The only thing "300" has going for it, is that it looks nice and that some of the action is not a total loss. Other than that, it's a colossally hollow and obnoxious movie.
"300" is a movie that takes itself fairly seriously (it's about big themes like courage and freedom, you know) and is mainly concerned with making everything looks as "cool" as possible, but it's so silly and overdone that it become a cross between an enormous bore and something unintentionally funny.
I know that action movies do not emphasize story or plot development, but "300" pushes the neglect for these elements to a new low. There is no character development, and what passes for a story makes no sense whatsoever (even though it's based on real events. Emphasis here on 'based on'. This has nothing to do with history or reality).
Well, is at least the action decent then? Not really. While it looks very nice at times and it sure is pretty bloody, it's not really all that exciting. Fights lack any kind of logic and the Spartans are so invincible that there isn't any suspense either.
And then, there's the yelling. When people in this movie are not fighting, they try to best each other at shouting about how courageous and manly they are. Which is all good and well, if it weren't for the fact that what they are shouting is so corny and overdone that you can't help but laugh out loud, which is quite probably not the intended effect.
Also, what troubles me is that much of this movie is presented as 'historically accurate' even though it has next to nothing to do with real events. It has all been simplified and twisted to get a point across (how the good, freedom-loving west overcomes the evil, tyrannic east). Of course there is artistic freedom, but portraying the Spartans (who by and large were the fascists of ancient Greece) as proponents of democracy and freedom is both laughable and sad.
To summarize, this movie is a joke. It looks nice and that's about it. It has no characters, no logic or coherence, and awful lot of cringe-inducing pomp and machismo, and a complete disregard of history.