The Day Style Became A Genre

Rating: 4/10 (16 March 2007)

When was it that style became a genre? Was it The Matrix? Was it Kill Bill or Sky Captain? Or was it 300? From the trailers, I wasn't expecting much from 300. It looked like a CGI testosterone-heavy bloodfest. And it was, but even so I expected more than what I got. 300 comes across like it was made by 17-year-old boys for 17-year-old boys. I'd say that there was a romantic angle thrown in for the women, but actually it was just a sex scene. This is one of those films where I hear people say "it's good for what it is supposed to be." And they're right - if you like pretty crap, this is some of the best. But I'm tired of qualifiers. If it's a movie about zombies, I want a good movie about zombies If it's a movie about dancing CG penguins, give me a good movie about dancing CG penguins. And if it's a movie about 300 Spartans vs a million Persianswell, you know. Give me some good acting. Give me a character I can identify with (any character! PLEASE! Don't make me root for the hunchback because he evokes the most pathos). Give me some character development (don't show me a boy fighting a CGI wolf and then have a voice-over telling me "this boy is fighting a wolf"). A bit of clever or meaningful dialogue and a story with more than one layer would be an added bonus.
Here's my problem with 300 in a nutshell: those elephants are way too big. Don't give me Lord of the Rings and tell me it's Greek history. I've seen enough elves surfing down castle stairs on shields while firing volleys of arrows. In 300, everything is a cartoonish parody of itself. And if you're going to make everything a cartoon, why not just animate the whole movie? The Samurai Jack episode that tackles this same subject is much better, and has just as much style.
Sometimes less is more. And sometimes more is less. A lot less. At least The Matrix for all it's flair had a human element to it.
I will give it one thing: they didn't use the often-used and never-should-be-used shaky, blurry, quick-cut action scene style. They showed me everything and everywhere that the swords were going, and I applaud that.
They could have done so much better by making it more human. More REAL. 300 is more a very long music video than a movie.