Terrible

Rating: 1/10 (8 March 2008)

One of the worst movies ever, certainly the cgi effects make it worth viewing once but you are best going to see this movie with the lowest expectations possible otherwise you WILL be disappointed.
For those of you interested in history this movie will not deliver but it will still thrill.
However, several of the problems with this movie was it almost represented more Alexander history than Spartan. The elephants come from Alexander's fight with Porus where he sends elephants to break their ranks. The entire characterization of Xerxes is entirely wrong and actually represents Porus as well both through the coins they showed (which survive today) and from the size different, they tried to show between Leonidas and Xerxes. Porus was reported to be a foot taller than Alexander.
Sparta was famous for gender equality and advancement. They have mixed in general Greek (Theban and Athenian) archetypes and called them Spartans. Women were warriors and were taken at age 7 as well. Women warriors were actually among the 300 that died as well. Women could own property, run the household and be on the council. The Queen would not have to 'request' an audience when she would just demand it as Queen.
Another major issue is that no child was cast out from Sparta for any reason, if there was a reason they couldn't be a soldier then they were be looked down upon but not outcast. Part of the reason Sparta went out of prosperity was because their birth rate was enormously low hence why they would not cast out a single child. It took about six live births for one to survive to adulthood. Finally, their slave to citizen ratio was terrible because no one could become a citizen and only be born one.
They did not state which Oracle that Leonidas went to in the movie just that it had been bribed and it was Spartan law. The only oracles whose opinions are honored for something as major as war would be Delphi, Naxos and Delos: the major oracles of the ancient world. There was a story that in this time period Delphi oracle started giving out weird prophecy and allegedly had been bought by the Persians.
The Persian Tactics in this movie are very poorly betrayed. The Immortals were not seen as ancient gods but were the King's personal bodyguard of about 15,000 swordsmen. They were called the immortals because of their numbers the King could never be reached and were allegedly all hand selected by the king. The first line of Persian offensive would have been what today is known as pike men, which would use a weapon called a Sarissa, which is a 10-15 foot like pike with a bronze pointed head. Cavalry would not have been used in such a narrow area since cavalry is only used for flanking which could not be done here.
Another piece stolen from Alexander history was the ax you see that twirls and misses King Leonidas. This is actually where Cleitus the black saves Alexander the Great's life by pushing him out of the way of a twirling ax, which still manages to nick his plume.
Another outrageous scene was the beginning one (arguable as well stolen from the Alexander tradition) where they reversed Persian and Spartan policy. It was absolutely forbidden as custom to all Greek polis to kill a messenger/diplomat or emissary of any ruler or town. Persians on the other hand have no such policy and often times killed Alexander's messengers (sending back a horse with skulls or killing them in front of his eyes) but Greeks would never commit such a war atrocity as killing messengers.
Probably my biggest complaint of the whole movie is NO ONE looks Persia at all. They cast blacks and want us to think they are Persians? They could have at least cast Xerxes as a Persian rather than getting some dude that represents Porus more than Xerxes. The only person that looks even remotely Persian is like extra person #2375 who gets a 3-second clip where Spartans get to chop him up.
Minor issues, all Spartans shaved their heads to so hair could not be a problem in battle this portrayal seems to have been overlooked because it is effect that is much more rugged. Obviously the whole 'Spartan traitor' thing both with the priest and the cripple was made up for effect but it was true that Greek which were exiled led Xerxes army. Finally, they did not choose their words carefully at all often referring to jailing someone when the ancients rarely ever made jails (the rare exception being Socrates' jail). Someone was either put under house arrest, exiled or killed on the spot.
Correct stuff/applause was it a great soundtrack, the CGI was very well done having been to Greece and all the places mentioned. I love Frank Miller's voice over so the movie actually ends at the victory of the Greeks with Platea. The men trained to look like the real Spartans, which well fit. And then hands down the best part of the whole movie was the people had clearly read Herodotus and modified some of his famous one line quips to include them in the movie such as the "we will fight in the shade if they shower us with arrows" and "Enjoy your meal boys cause the next one will be served in Hades." Overall, not a bad movie, it delivers some good action and accurate Spartan fighting tactics at the cost of a little history. It is not Spartacus or Gladiator but its not as bad as Troy either.