A feast of empty calories...

Rating: 6/10 (30 March 2007)

..."300" is yet another film realization of comic book 'enfante terrible' Frank Miller's dark and unforgiving vision of humanity, and director/co-screenwriter Zack "Dawn of the Dead (2004)" Snyder's equally Hobbesian outlook. It's a combination that pays off visually to the extreme, but also fails to connect with any significant emotional depth or impact. And that's a shame.
If Snyder's intent was to simply animate Miller's comic book, he quite obviously more than succeeded. Even more so than "Sin City," "300" is a comic book come to life, right down to the inkblot blood spatters throughout the combat sequences. Everything is larger than life (and not just Xerxes), nearly surrealistically so. Loads of use of desaturated color and stuttering slow-mo, along with CGI sets and image enhancement contribute to the overall effect of a comic book come to life. Larry "Lost" Fong's camera-work is kinetic in the action scenes and a stark microscope in close-ups. The overall effect is mesmerizing, and yet empty. Unlike "Sin City," this is a film in which the story is utterly subservient to the visuals, instead of the other way around, and it keeps its audience at a distance, refusing to connect on an emotional level (unless you count the release of adrenaline and testosterone to be emotional), despite the best efforts of leads Gerard "Dracula 2000" Butler and Leona "The Cave" Headey to build some sort of relationship with which modern audiences might empathize. In its attempt to raise "sword and sandal" epics to new cinematic heights, "300" still fails to create the human connection that made "Gladiator" a more compelling, interesting film. The intrusion of fantasy elements didn't help much, either, proving to further remove audience interest in any historical lessons to be learned.
The result of Snyder's recreation of Miller's stylized violence? Surprisingly little original insight into the nature of Spartan culture (not that I expected such) beyond the y-chromosome posturings of machismo honor and female subjugation to the warrior ethos, despite the independent efforts of Leonidas' queen. Much like Snyder's reworking of "Dawn of the Dead," "300" is an emotionless adventure game that fails to engage the audience's soul or heart. It appeals primarily to the eye and ear alone.
(11.15.07 edit) I'm not surprised to see that the older the IMDber, the lower the rating for "300," but still find it intriguing that females rate the film equally or higher than males, except the 45+ cohort. I would guess this may have to do with the beefcake factor; anachronistic buff torsos predominate, and older females are perhaps less impressed by such eye candy, not to mention indifferent to the shallow thrills of testosterone-laden combat sequences.
I suspect that ratings for this film will decline as more home viewers weigh in with their verdicts, and those who have already seen it adjust their scoring when they realize how superficial "300" really is.