300 against millions I like these odds!

Rating: 6/10 (26 March 2007)

First and foremost, "300" sadly is one of them films for which all the highlights already featured in the trailer. All of Gerard Butler's aggressive speeches ("Madness? This...is...Sparta!" or "Spartans, tonight we dine in hell!"), and all the Spartans' monstrous opponents simply aren't exciting anymore, since theaters have been playing the trailer since December 2006 already. Sure there are other encouragement speeches and other, less extravagant enemies to battle, but it's all pretty tame compared with what the trailer promised us. This is rather unacceptable for a hugely promoted epic blockbuster like "300". Cinematic events like this should be a non-stop series of excitement, spectacle and they should feature so much action it couldn't possibly fit in one trailer. Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto", for example, was a film that featured a constant level of adrenalin-rushing footage, and the trailer only served as an appetizer. Other than that, "300" is a pretty remarkable and visually impressive movie that'll certainly appeal to all fans of savage macho-behavior and slow-motion dismemberment sequences. Hollywood recently discovered a new prodigy and they're already exploiting all of his works. The unique style and giant success of Frank Miller's "Sin City" immediately resulted in a screenplay-adaptation of the man's other graphic novel "300", which revolves on the historical battle of Thermopylae, where a small army of 300 Spartan warriors defended their land and heritage against literally millions of Persian soldiers under the command of the greedy and self-declared demigod Xerxes. The Spartan king Leonidas encourages his troops, who were all raised as relentless fighting-machines, never to surrender and to give their lives for Sparta. Even though is a thoroughly unfair battle, Leonidas and his men nonetheless manage to seriously deplete Xerxes' armies. I don't suppose Frank Miller's outrageous depiction of this battle counts as an accurate history lesson  unless the Persians really did recruit mutated monsters and giants as soldiers  but it's a vivid image of ancient barbaric warfare. Fans of shiny biceps, muscled torsos and really loud yelling will have the time of their lives and they certainly don't have to bother about the racist portrayal of literally every country that isn't Greek. Exactly like in "Sin City", the actors simply had to pretend to fight in front of blue screens and the decors as well as the scenery only got added afterwards. It seems like this is becoming a new trend in cinema, because it increases the idea of watching a comic book that comes to life. It's not very realistic or convincing, but it offers the special effects team a wonderful change to experiment with surreal and grotesque tableaux and optical illusions. "300" is pure testosterone-driven entertainment, you just know to look for intelligent dialogs in this film.