Don't believe the hype

Rating: 4/10 (6 March 2007)

I just returned from a preview of "300" and I'm glad I didn't have to pay for it. First the film clocks in under two hours and I find that to verge on the insulting. However even at under two hours the film is too long. Most of the scenes that are not the actual battle itself are too long, poorly written, trite, and pretty much pointless. They don't serve to advance the story or provide any benefit. The fighting was overly reliant on slow motion (why? It was a nice trick about 20 years ago, but it's been seen and it's been done.) There was nothing new in the fight choreography, in fact if you have seen a fair number of action movies you've seen all the fight choreography on display here. Here there be spoiler: Leonidas delivers a long speech (given the average length of dialog in this film) about fighting in the phalanx and protecting your fellow Spartan, but then you never see it used in the film the way he describes really robbing that scene of any poignancy and impact.
In the end I found this film to be an over-hyped mediocre production that does a disservice to the story of Thermopylae. I'd strongly recommend Steven Pressfields "Gates of Fire".