Wow, I gotta start working out...

Rating: 7/10 (7 March 2008)

I remember I almost fell out of my chair when I first saw the preview for 300, although it's taken me over a year since I bought the DVD to get around to watching it. Maybe because the bad reviews started trickling in. It's an adaptation of a graphic novel that I haven't read, but I'm told that that novel portrays a sort of heightened reality like what Leonidas describes as he is faced with seemingly insurmountable danger. The movie retains that level of hyper- reality and achieves a truly unique look and experience, but it may put off viewers interested in seeing something about the real story that the film is based on.
Of course, the true story of a hugely inferior band of Spartans holding out against the Persian army is so clouded in myth and legend that by now it's impossible to say for sure what really happened, but we can probably assume that a good majority of what happens in this movie didn't happen.
My knowledge of ancient Greek history is pretty limited, to say the least, but I was sort of expecting that the movie would tell something about what happened at the Battle of Thermopylae, where the courageous Spartans took their stand. Instead, it's sort of a bloated comic-book movie the sometimes doesn't seem to know whether it wants to emulate Troy, Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter. There's a hunchback, there's magic, there are fully grown mountain dwarfs, a healthy dose of Hollywood/comic book machismo, and lots of spraying blood that reminded me of Tarantino's spectacularly disappointing Sin City. At least here it's not green.
In the movie's defense, it is definitely an astonishing visual achievement. It's true that the entire film is digital and you are never able to forget that, but it is definitely beautiful. The problem with digital backgrounds is that, apparently, they still haven't been able to make them look really realistic, especially battle scenes. I'm pretty sure they're making video games these days that look this good.
Half of the reason I wanted to see the movie was because of the tough talk in defiance of so- called authority, I always love that. Have you seen those "Caution: This is Sparta" signs? HILARIOUS. Anyway, there are a lot of classic moments and memorable lines in the movie ("There's no reason we can't be civil, is there?"), but after a while I found the over-the-top bravado a little cloying and just a little too, ah, over-the-top. There is no sense of realism, but then again the movie never tries for it. It is, basically, a romanticized and dramatized telling of a historical battle, just like what Braveheart is. But this movie is romanticized and dramatized in completely different ways. Ultimately, I think the result is better off intended for a slightly younger audience.
The performances in the film are wonderful, sometimes even astonishing. Gerard Butler as Leonidas is one of the most intense performances I've seen in a movie in some years, reminding me for some reason of the unbelievable level of intensity that Tom Cruise brought to Mission Impossible III. I noticed some IMDb user make the bizarre claim that Xerxes, played by Rodrigo Santoro, looked gay. Yes, Xerxes is quite a spectacle to behold, but effeminate? PLEASE. The only thing remotely effeminate about him were his eyebrows, but other than that he had the otherworldly presence that a living god should have. And besides, I have to say that I wonder about anyone who could hear his voice and think androgyny!
300 was a slight disappointment to me, but it definitely succeeds in what it sets out to do. It's a wild ride from start to finish and it never lets up, but I can't deny that there are some definite cheese moments, even for a film like this. It promises basically 100 minutes of exactly what you see in that almost weirdly impressive theatrical trailer, and if you can handle that for a couple hours, you're in for a treat.
Terrible date movie, though...