Epic Silliness

Rating: 4/10 (26 April 2007)

Poor history and suss politics aside, I can't remember the last film I saw that I was so uninvolved with? For a film about a great battle it was strangely bloodless. There was no real sense of violence I thought, all that blood that seemed to explode from people just seemed to vanish into thin air.
And the cinematography seemed oddly detached from any sense of place. You just knew that the whole thing was filmed on a set, and as for Sparta, I have seen more convincing cities in 1970/80s vintage Dr Who! This could have made a great silent movie. I have't had to endure such atrocious dialogue since... hmmm.... the last Star Wars film perhaps (and perhaps not even then - maybe Gladiator)? Some of the visuals were compelling (the tree of corpses) but nothing I hadn't seen before. The child/wife/wheat field scenes were lifted straight out of Gladiator as was the faux Lisa Gerrard vocalizations. In fact I find it hard to think of a single original idea contained within the film. Even the end titles (which were possibly the best thing in the entire film - not least cos it meant it was the end of the film) seemed to be a bit of a rip off from Casino Royale.
Not the worst film I have ever seen, but a pretty pointless one none the less.