Welll made but i'm disappointed

Rating: 6/10 (10 March 2007)

I feel like a Spartan facing the hordes of fans who will run me over after I dare criticize this movie...
The 300 is a very well made movie - no doubt about it - but, as a cinematographic work, it suffers from sticking too much to its origin as a graphic novel. Graphic novels are a special form of expression, with impressive graphics and short texts, but the reader knows he's looking at a graphic novel and suspends his/her disbelief to follow the story. Movies on the other hand, are expected to look and feel realistic. The 300 is somewhere between the two, a comic book with photographic images but not an epic movie like Gladiator.
The preview contains 80% of the best scenes of the movie and, furthermore, it does not prepare the viewer for the look and atmosphere of the movie. The CGI is too oppressive, it is "too much" and it crushes the performance of the actors and ends up looking phony. The characters are "flat", they miss personality (besides Leonidas), they each have one personality trait and that's all we see.
The character of Xerses is laughable (but it's not the director's fault, the character comes straight from the graphic novel)and most of the villains look as real as any bad guy from a Batman book. The Spartans are noble and all but once you start looking closely, they start looking unreal and cartoonish. Leonidas' wife is major eye-candy though, and she sticks out like the only realistic character in the whole movie. Also, the dancing oracle is wonderful to look at but if you observe the image too closely, the filming technique used becomes obvious and it ruins the feeling.
In short, this movie is an excellent "moving graphics-graphic novel" but don't go in looking for Lauwrence of Arabia, you'll be disappointed.