Another live-action cartoon

Rating: 4/10 (26 March 2007)

Plenty of people will argue that 300 is SUPPOSED to be the way it is (preposterous and ultra-violent) because it is a faithful adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel. I'm not one to argue with that point of view. I am not familiar with the novels, but I am willing to believe the multitudes who write that the movie is dead-on in that respect.
Whether that makes for an enjoying cinematic experience is another story. There's no doubt that it is an interesting movie to look at. At least for a little while. "300" offers up slayings by the boatload and some wicked looking (if perplexing) creatures. There are plenty of people out there (and you may be one of them) who are completely satisfied by multiple angles and variable camera speeds of slashing and thrusting. If you thought the LOTR battles were great but all the talking slowed things down, this may be just the movie for you.
If you require that movies you enjoy have things like "engaging dialog" and "characters you care about" you may feel disappointed. Don't make the mistake I did and think liking "Sin City" means that you will like "300." A lot of the dialog in this movie sounds like it was borrowed from commercials for the Army and the Marines, (at least before it was An Army of One) and most of it is yelled. Unfortunately, the dialog from the non-warrior characters is even worse.
There are many other angles to this movie that other reviewers have explored, such as elephant abuse and good guys = light skin and bad guys = dark skinned perverts. While I found those topics fascinating the things I really wondered about after watching 300 were
1) Was there ANYTHING in this movie that would appeal to women? If you were going to make an R-rated movie that only guys would like, I'm pretty sure this is how it would look.
2) Has there ever been a movie about professional warriors where at least SOME of the people had chipped or missing teeth? There were a lot of gruesome scars on just about every character, but only the freaks (lepers, guys in chains, etc.) had bad teeth. Maybe part of the Spartan warrior training includes visits to an orthodontist. Bad teeth seems to be a huge Hollywood taboo.
3) How and when did British accents become the all-purpose foreign accent? Just like bad teeth, would Greek accents and Persian accents be too off-putting for American audiences? This isn't a call for more realism, especially in a movie like "300." Movies do this ALL THE TIME, especially when the movie is "historical," whether or not the characters spoke English.
To conclude this rambling review, I want to go on record stating that for all 300's faults, bad acting was NOT one of them. Gerard Butler (King Leonidas) played The Stranger in an obscure movie from Scotland called "Dear Frankie," and that role was maybe 175 degrees away from King Leonidas.