Fighting with panache and not much else.

Rating: 6/10 (19 March 2007)

I usually try and give immediate feedback where possible and as I have just finished watching the film, I think it's safe to say that I got exactly what I expected. In the same way that the film skirts any reasonable attempts at attention to detail, both in fact and picture, I will therefore not spend any time dressing up the experience for you.
This does have Sin City and Gladiator all over it, but fails to live up to either, if I'm honest. It doesn't portray it's characters well enough for you to care about them. You don't care so much as what happens to them, but those with a taste for violence will be entertained by how it happens to them.
This is a pretty film, dogged only by it's determination to entertain rather than inform. It could do both, but chooses not to. Nonetheless, entertaining it most certainly is. I sat through the whole thing and didn't yawn once. The fighting does get a bit repetitive after a while. After you've seen one nasty Persian knocked off a horse or get gutted by a spear, you've pretty much had the ride. Still, the ride is good enough, at least, to make you hop on a couple more times.
As I said, this is really all about fighting, and doing it with style. I was reminded of Troy on occasion, but the biggest nod goes to Gladiator, helplessly hoping to emulate something that, in my opinion, can't be faulted. The use of grayscale and reds is something that all Miller designed movies will no doubt be judged on in the future, but personally, after this and Sin City, I have seen enough of these already.
A no-brainer, truly, with delusions of grandeur, much like the Spartans themselves. Could do better.