Lots of racist crap

Rating: 1/10 (8 April 2007)

Some beautiful graphical work. The performances by the main actors were pretty good (though the accents were inconsistent and often unconvincingly modern-sounding). That's the best I can say about it.
The story is stupid and simplistic. "Enemy comes along. A few good men take on the evil dudes in their large numbers. Let's admire the good men forever for their bravery and courage. Let's rally to their support...yada yada yada"
Characters are predictable and obvious - either plain good or bad. At least with Sin City, it felt like some interesting ideas and new ground was being covered.
Anyone who is an enemy is perverted and licentious in some way, particularly the opposing race (yeah, b/c we're all that simple). It portrays war and genocide as cool. It dresses most of the baddies up in non-western costumes.
The annoying thing is that the majority of the audience I was sitting with were impressionable, young boys. Yep, exactly the kind of minds that we want exposed to this stupid, racist crap. (And, not surprisingly, the highest ratings for this movie come from kids under 18.)
Many people claim 300 is only a movie. If it's only a movie, I would love to see another similar movie made, but with the characterisation reversed for the races. Let's have a huge number of caucasians portrayed as pathetic, bad, immoral, disloyal, licentious, weak and stupid. Let's have a small number of Persians/Asians/Arabs portrayed as strong, heroic, courageous, loyal, self-sacrificing, intelligent and honourable. And let's have this small clan easily massacre the pathetic white people, piling their bodies in a way that's reminiscent of the holocaust.
Then see the reaction of the same large group of (mostly caucasian) movie-goers who claim 300 is fantastic, and just a movie, and shouldn't be taken so seriously. Whether they admit it or not, many caucasians would despise and be upset by seeing the way the characters that "represent" them are portrayed and they would feel the simplistic, hateful racism that is inherent in such portrayals.
This is not a movie for those who respect different cultures or value intelligent ideas.