Pulp-Mythology at its Finest

Rating: 9/10 (12 March 2007)

A brilliant, old-fashioned sword-and-sandal epic that in unashamedly embracing its graphic novel origins, seems to evoke the spirit of Steve Reeves' spaghetti-mythology of the 1950s and '60s. Of course, the production values are far superior to anything Pietro Francisci et al were every able to conjure, and there's considerably more blood and guts flying, but in essence, and despite the blanket use of CGI and a multi-million dollar ad campaign, '300' successfully evokes a kind of Saturday matinée innocence that is refreshing.
Everything is painted with a very broad brush that relishes in high-camp and scenery-chewing theatrics. The good guys, led by Butler's Leonidas, are all images of stoic pride and honor; the bad guys, in the form of Xerxes and Theron, are all devilishly cruel and inhuman monsters. There's no moral ambiguity. No subtlety. Just a thrilling, testosterone fueled, popcorn action movie, the likes of which we really haven't seen since Ray Harryhausen put down his modeling tools.
An excellent movie that manages to rise above the accusation of style-over-substance by being built upon the foundation of a solidly structured narrative and, through Zack Snyder, a clear and singular artistic vision that is backed up with genuine talent. All the performances manage to strike a very difficult balance  being suitably over-the-top while retaining enough humanity to never really descend in to tedious caricature. My only gripe about the entire movie is that editor William Hoy seems out of his depth at times, particularly in the battles, seemingly unable to wrangle things in to coherent scenes. But it is a minor flaw in what is a genuinely fun and exhilarating movie that, given the sheer number of instantly iconic images, is sure to become something of a minor-classic.