Worst Form of Entertainment

Rating: 1/10 (18 November 2007)

If you are a young gamer, you'll probably love 300. If you like films produced and directed by old school pros, watch this movie at your own risk.
This fictionalized account of a handful of Spartan soldiers pitting against a massive Persian armed force is appalling to put it mildly. It is almost two hours long, and about two thirds of the movie is a continuous battle scene. It's not that I am against fictionalization of historical events or battle scenesI have seen plenty of those. What makes me FURIOUS is that some people in Hollywood made a movie that looks like an extremely violent video game. And glorifying killing. The enemy soldiers are pure evil and totally dehumanized looking like cartoon figures or creatures in a video game that video game players love to destroy. In my view, it's the worst form of entertainment. What's the point of the use of slow motion of a flying severed limb or head? In Bonnie and Clyde, the shooting scene at the end in slow motion was gut-wrenching, and there was nothing 'cool' about it. The larcenous pair met a violent death, and the viewers were horrified to see it on the screen.
Most of the main characters in 300 are so busy slaughtering in the CG battles, there's hardly any storyline. Simply put, the only message in this film is that freedom is not free; sacrifice yourself in the name of freedom and kill as many enemies as possible. Modify the characters and eliminate the historical aspects from 300, and you'll end up with an excellent recruit video for new Al-Qaeda suicide bombers.