300 (Zack Snyder, 2006) ***

Rating: 7/10 (15 July 2007)

I wasn't really expecting to enjoy this epic/comic-strip adaptation but I was quite pleasantly surprised and even impressed by it (watching it on the big screen decidedly helped); while clearly superior to the more straightforward telling of the legendary battle in the Hollywood spectacular THE 300 SPARTANS (1962), it's also certainly the closest approximation to a graphic novel that cinema has come up with so far (the desaturated color scheme really puts one in the ambiance). The unexpectedly full-blooded acting (especially lead Gerard Butler) also managed to breathe life into stock characters often forced to mouth propagandist slogans (though the Spartans' battle cry, making them sound more like an American football team, is corny)! The battle sequences are among the fiercest ever depicted, even if the gimmicky editing distracts from their ultimate impact. Where the film tends to falter is in the unnecessary grotesquerie on display  the lecherous Spartan leper priests, the conniving hunchback, the campily made-up Persian king and his ogre warriors, etc.