Let Down

Rating: 4/10 (11 March 2007)

I was very disappointed when I walked out of the theater. Very little was done to develop the character of Leonidas or any of the other Spartan soldiers. The best acting and character development came from the role of the queen. If the whole movie had been about her it would have been more engrossing.
The 300 Spartans are just given to the audience. They are not introduced nor is their history explained. Why are these fighters chosen? What personal reason do they have for fighting? Everyone knows they fight for Sparta but if the audience is supposed to care about these characters then the audience has to get to know some of them. The only character that reveals a range of emotions and thoughts is the queen. Hence, when her plot line reached its climax, everyone in our theater cheered. When the Spartans fought, everyone enjoyed the cinematography of the action but there was no emotional investment.
The pace of the movie was also poorly developed. The battle should be the climax of the movie so that the audience views it as the culmination of an intense story. Instead, the movie bogs down in the battle and one is left to wonder, how long can this last? Thats not to say that the battle is completely dull. There are excellently filmed action scenes and exciting fights. However, they never feel like they are the apex of the movie.
What worries me most is that Snyder is slated to direct Watchmen, a much more intricate story that will require great skill to translate into a movie. If he couldn't execute the storyline of 300 then what will he do with a much more difficult project?