Had everything but lacked soul..

Rating: 7/10 (2 April 2007)

I was dying to see this movie from the time I heard of it especially since I'm a big fan of the R-rated gory battle movies and loved Sincity.The fact that there are no names in this movie hardly seemed important and wasn't in the end.
The premise of this movie had limitless potential for the stylised bloodshed and swordplay that I love so much, the real battle was much less one sided (a thousand at a height against 1,00,000) but I was happy to learn that the movies would be taking liberties with history in order to make a more entertaining film.
And entertaining it was.........
It excelled in almost every field the visuals were brilliant (albeit very heavy on CG and the digital effects could be jarring for some) and every scene felt like a painting, the film had a similar comic book feel that Sincity had and similar film effects had a lot to do with it.
The action scenes were brilliant albeit historically inaccurate, they were as brutal and gory as can be and I loved it. The action was well choreographed and it was great fun seeing a bunch of super warriors annihilate all sorts of stuff that was thrown at them. (Being Indian I found it hard to believe how the Greeks tackled elephants when ironically 300 elephants of Poruses army wiped out most of Alexanders if it wasn't for the storm that drove the elephants mad Alexander would have lost his entire army of 75000).
The acting was good with the movie always remaining true to its comic book heritage with lots of short simple and effective dialogues peppered across the film and THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF ANY COMIC THE NARRATOR.
The story was interesting and as with almost all history the stories that are remembered the most and the longest are the ones involving some tragedy or mishap (obviously the ultimate victor writes history but again the events that are remembered are the tragedies for either of the sides). People love the underdog here too a handful of great warriors taking on a massive army endears to the heart.
The background score was decent and added to the movie.
Technically the movie was near perfect with excellent direction and digital cinematography the way the comic book feel is created is brilliant.
The short length of the movie ensured that you never lost interest for even a moment and enjoyed throughout the film.
So why the low rating?!! Like I said the movie lacked a soul...
The comic book dialogues were perfect for Sincity which was always about the comic but this movie involves an intense epic battle and the absolute lack of any stirring dialogue does more good than bad, scenes involving patriotism were absolutely lost, THOSE THAT ARE LESS EMOTIONAL ABOUT BATTLE MOVIES AND PATRIOTISM WILL NOT BE AFFECTED BY THIS AS MUCH AS ME THOUGH.
I loved the sheer amount of bloodshed but the lack of spirit that I was talking about surfaces here too though with the sheer number of deaths taking precedence over the intense personal fights between two great warriors that are shown in most movies involving epic battles.
Im a person who fantasizes about dying for my country and gets easily stirred by battle and very emotional in those involving patriotism and the underdog,(i seriously believe that I may have been a warrior and freedon fighter in my past life) even then this movie failed to strike a chord in me (I'm one who gets emotional even in movies like Troy or Arthur which was supposed to be less intense than say a Braveheart).
Maybe I set my expectations to high or wanted something from this movie that it was never supposed to have but a movie that seems tailor-made for me yet failed to stir me seems like a serious issue (save for patriotism and victory of the underdog I like my movie as simple as possible I like my fights gory, lots of murder (zombie flicks), my comedy crass and the women nude). So even though it was impossible for me not to like this movie it seriously fell below my expectations.
The common critic always favour movies that have drama and going by the hype surrounding it I seriously felt this movie would have loads of spirit.
The ending too was lack-lustre and could have been done much better especially considering the preceding comic book like story and action.
In either case this movie is a much watch movie with just about enough to please the festival crowd and those who use the word cinema instead of movies.
-s absolute lack of soul,lacklustre ending, fell below expectations.
+/-s comic book feel (loved it Sincity though).
+s superb technically, good acting, great action scenes with lots of blood and gore, hot chicks,short and sweet,very interesting story, suitable for all audiences.
total 7/10 (ignoring the fact that it fell way below expectations lacklustre ending will be an issue even for people with different tastes and is a major factor in the lower rating).