Visually stunning and entertaining sword and sandal epic. Just don't expect the History Channel

Rating: 7/10 (1 February 2009)

The sword and sandal genre has been around since the beginning of the motion picture. And why not you have incredible sources like the Bible, Mythology and, as in the case of "300", ancient History. The movie 300 is based on a historical event that took place in 480 B.C.E. when the mighty Persian empire was invading Greece and 300 Spartans fought them at the pass at Thermophylae. It's one of the greatest historical battles that should be told and had been before in 1961's "The 300 Spartans". That movie, which was made at the height of Hollywood's sword and sandal epics, benefited from the film technology of the era. It was shot in Technicolor and in Cinemascope, 300 benefits from CGI. No matter what the technology a film still depends on a good script.
I have to say outright that 300 is one of the most visually stunning movie I have ever seen. This is the kind of film I envisioned when I was reading about Greek Mythology in High school. To see a real historical event gets this treatment is something beyond my expectation. From the very first shot you know this is something you have never seen before and it just maintain this level throughout. It's like every frame was drawn by Boris Vallejo, it's a unique visual feast.
The main problem with this movie is the script. We never got a good background to the conflict between the Greeks and the Persians. We know the Persians wants to rule over the Spartans but why? We don't see the Spartans cooperating with the other Greek city states except when a token force from Athens show up to fight by their side. Hollywood movie treatment of historical events, unfortunately are incomplete and highly inaccurate and 300 is no exception once you get down to the bare bones of the script.
The other thing about the script is that it was written as to be recited not spoken. And the actors perform it as such. The dialog and the acting is stilted just as was the case with many of the sword and sandal epics from the 1950s and 60s. Gerard Butler's performance as King Leonidas was as expected, he gives one of those larger than life performance that Charlton Heston specialized in back in his epic days. The rest of the cast pretty much followed along the same line. The one exception was Lena Heady, who played Leonidas' wife. She gave her role a little more humanity than the others, but she really didn't have enough screen time to flesh the character out more.
All in all I would have to say that this movie is an entertaining and incredible visual feast but at the same time it's just another sword and sandal epic with a lot of short coming when it comes to background information and your typical stilted dialog and performance.