It looks good, it's fun to watch but there is something missing

Rating: 4/10 (24 March 2007)

My initial response after seeing "300" was: It's good. Not great, not revolutionary, not garbage, just good. I'm not really familiar with the Frank Miller graphic novel but if it is so close to the movie as a lot of people praised it as, than I doubt I'll be buying it anytime soon. To put it simply "300" was good when it was trying to be entertaining but it failed flat when it was trying to create a memorable story with interesting characters.
As stated above this is an adaptation of a graphic novel that itself was a highly stylized version of the legendary battle at the Thermopylae. Where 300 hundred Spartan soldiers led by their king Leonidas withstood a force several times larger, for three days. And the film is just that, one big battle with a simple plot that gives enough reason for the endless amounts of cool moments and one-liners.
There is a moment in the film where Leonidas states that the 300 fight as one unit, I guess in sense that was what Zack Snyder tried to do when he directed the movie. He made the "300" one character, and if you look closely you'll see that everyone is practically one and the same, same physical structure, same way thinking, same attitude, same motivation. Leonidas being the most vocal of the group and also the one whose past generalizes theirs. Problem is that this type of character presentation limits the level of attachment one can invest into the members of the "300". The plot doesn't help much either. The story is a clear-cut extremely linear black and white tale. The good guys are good, fighting the right cause and the bad guys are bad, fighting the evil cause. There is no moral ambiguity, no inner struggles, no attempts at making any sort of complex narrative. Only an added sub-plot dealing with the Spartan queen and her attempts to send help for Leonidas but that ultimately leads to nowhere. This simplicity leads to inevitable failure of the conclusion. Failure to invoke any feelings, neither sadness, nor regret.
Seeing as most of the dialogue was delivered by yelling it's hard to talk about acting in "300". While the other part is spoken in a dry monotonous manner that doesn't leave much of an impression. The dialogue itself doesn't help much either, some of the lines are too overly patriotic while others are just plain cheesy.
The good part in "300" is of course it's stylish visual presentation. The CGI effects are at the highlight here, merging almost perfectly with the live action. There are some really memorable moments such as the scene where the 300 look at the sinking Persian ships, the wall of corpses, the scene where they are forcing the Persians off the cliff. Everything looks great. Action scenes are well choreographed a bit too much on the slow-motion but still bearable. Overall Snyder did his job in directing the movie pretty well considering the limitations of the script, the movie was fast, energetic and downright fun to watch. Limbs are flying, blood is squirting by the gallons in all their cinematic glory. It's bloody, it's gory and it's incredibly exhilarating watching all the carnage commence as hordes after hordes of Persians get shred to pieces by the 300.
"300"'s got "popcorn movie" written all over it, offering great entertainment for the people who like the fantasy/action genres. A perfect example at how computer effects should be treated in movies. If only it realized it's potential for stronger emotional content by exploiting themes like honor, self-sacrifice or freedom better, then "300" would have been even better.