A different point of view of that story.

Rating: 10/10 (23 May 2007)

This movie is beautiful, has incredible visual effects, a not really complicated plot and really fantastic battle scenes, if someone loses it's head, it'll show exactly the head falling from the body and hitting the ground like a soccer ball. "If you want blood, you're welcome to join us", said Leonidas in the movie, and it's quite like that.
People mostly describe it as a spectacle of blood and action, with really fantastic visual effects and a lot of clichés as dialogues. I don't think this movie is quite like that. You can really tell the whole story of the movie in 3 lines if you wanted, yet, this movie is not so empty as they say. It's not because it's very simple and plain, that it's meaningless.
I think, this movie has a message and it's something very deep.
When the Persian empire comes to Greece with it's huge wealth and military power, threatening the Greeks with annihilation or submission, most people will just get afraid and think of a way of escaping from being destroyed by becoming subordinate of the Persians, even through for the Persian empire, being subordinate means becoming a slave. Even through their leader is nothing short of a tyrant, people will not only abdicate of their freedoms for their lives, but they'll try to benefit from that greater wealth and become corrupt.
That's what everyone does, not only in this movie, but everywhere. The easier choice always prevails. It's easy to just stay and do nothing, it's easy to be corrupt, it's the easy path, becoming an ally of the Persian empire.
That's reality, that's what happens everywhere, all the time. The easier choice is leaving all that's right and becoming corrupt for the sake of your own greed. Yet, in this movie, someone, knowing it's impossible to win, will fight to the death to preserve what they believe it's right, even if it's a war of 300 against a million. There's examples of that in the movie, the Ephors, Theron, the council and others versus the queen, Leonidas and the three-hundred soldiers.
The entire world around you becomes corrupt, a great power it's about to take over everything, meaning it's the end of your lifestyle how you are used, so you'll just low your head and accept it? Or you'll stand with the few who won't accept that even if it cost you very much?
What's the "glory" they keep talking about? It's just a matter of pride? Or it means that glory, it's defending what you believe, to the end, even if you die for it?
This point of view it's different from everything I've read about this movie and it made me think a lot about things I've been doing recently in my life and what other people having been doing too.
This movie it's not empty at all.
And people should be careful about not becoming biased by critics opinion and so-called experts when watching this movie.