Sin City it ain't, but still an awesome, breathtaking action movie

Rating: 8/10 (25 March 2007)

Those drooling with anticipation for Sin City 2 (and 3) should give 300 a look, since it's similar to Robert Rodriguez's masterpiece: same source material (a graphic novel by Frank Miller), same filming technique (the backgrounds are all computer-generated) and, most important, same brutal atmosphere.
Whatever Miller writes involves torture and death, and 300 is no exception. In fact, the beginning of the film is made more painful to watch by the fact that the events depicted really happened in that period: we're talking about a town, Sparta, so obsessed with physical perfection all disfigured male children were killed instantly. As for those who lived, the law established that they be taken away from their mothers at the age of 7 and not return to Sparta until they had become perfect killing machines. This same thing happened to Leonidas (Gerard Butler), the Spartan king the story revolves around, and this explains why he refuses to surrender when he's told the Persian army is about to invade all Greece. Since a true soldier would rather die than yield to the enemy, Leonidas chooses three hundred men (hence the film's title) to help him stop the Persians at the Thermopylae. Given the numbers (300 Spartans against one million Persians), it really takes lots of courage to embark on such a mission. And that is why, as the narrator (David Wenham) underlines, everyone will remember that battle.
Being based on a comic-book, 300 is not a movie classicists should see: although his work was partly based on that of Greek historian Herodotus, Miller was more interested in writing a spectacular tale of love, loyalty and sacrifice, rather than an accurate account of this particular phase of the Persian war. And judging from the celluloid version, historical accuracy wasn't something director Zack Snyder (the man behind 2004's Dawn of the Dead remake) thought that much about either. His focus is on the scope and explicit brutality of the battle, and he cunningly uses his video-clip experience for that purpose: the fight scenes are among the most stunning in recent years, courtesy of smart editing, Lord of the Rings-inspired music and frequent use of slow-motion. In terms of style, 300 is every bit as mesmerizing as Sin City, each frame being filled with energy, beauty (as seen in the spellbinding oracle sequence) and, in the case of the battle scenes, lots of blood (enough to make Troy look like a PG-13 feature). The energy also emerges with insistence from the cast, particularly Butler's charismatic, relentlessly tough sovereign.
However, 300 does have a few minor flaws: whereas Sin City was 100% faithful to the written page, there is one significant diversion from the graphic novel in the form of Gorgo (Lena Headey), queen of Sparta, who was barely shown in Miller's story but is employed by Snyder to tone down the testosterone and give some room to the political side of the events. Now, the confrontations between Headey's caring monarch and Dominic West's opportunistic traitor are interesting, but kind of slow down the film, as the audience's attention is all in the hands of Leonidas and his men. Also, Rodrigo Santoro's camp and flamboyantly gay portrayal of Persian emperor Xerxes robs all his scenes of the grandiosity present in the rest of the film.
In the end, though, 300 stands out as the year's first great blockbuster, a compelling depiction of bravery (and extreme violence) and further proof that not all movies based on comic-books are dumb.