Good visuals, simple story---rather boring, actually.

Rating: 5/10 (19 March 2007)

I won't criticize the movie for being historically inaccurate. There probably is no "accurate" account of these events anyway, the graphic novel it is based on took license with previous material without pretensions to historical accuracy, and so does the movie. I have no problem with that. Incidentally, I think that the ways in which the movie (following the novel) most obviously deviates from what is likely historical fact (such as the depiction of the Persians and Xerxes, for instance) are very original, and they make this a better movie.
On the flip side, I also do not give the movie any particular credit for being an accurate representation of its source material. For one thing, I do not know the novel, but even if I did, I think the movie should stand on its own. If it can only be properly appreciated in reference to the graphic novel, it is a failure in my eyes.
That said, I find the movie lukewarm, and certainly not deserving of the hype and the incredible IMDb rating it has received as of this writing (rank 186 in the Top 250). The visuals are excellent, there is a lot of gore and action, and it's executed brilliantly, with some stunning photography.
However, the plot had me looking at my watch. There hardly isn't any. Basically your brain goes into screen saver mode while your eyes indulge in the graphic atrocities that audiences these days seem to enjoy feasting on. There really isn't much happening in this movie, other than a bunch of skilled brutes (skilled in being brutes, mind you) fighting against a much larger bunch of less skilled (and generally less attractive and less well-spoken---all the catchy one-liners are for the Spartans) brutes. If you know about the Battle of Thermopylae (how come we only ever get to hear the English translation of that name in the movie??), you even know how it all turns out, so it's not even a question of who is winning.
Then what is it, apart from dismembered pieces of Greeks and Persians flying through the field of vision, that is supposed to keep your interest? Maybe it's the heroism. Chest-thumping machos in skimpy attire fighting for all kinds of things, including the continuation of Western civilization. If you like that sort of thing, I guess that would do it for you---there is certainly enough of it going around in this movie. I just could not care for the cartoonish (and that's no reference to the nature of the source, but to the quality of the characterization) characters and the boring and stereotypical views, speeches, and actions.
Of course, the movie is not entirely without merit---the action is well done, the acting is not great but adequate for the purpose of providing the basic simplistic motivations for the massacre, photography/special effects are excellent. I'd say it's okay for what it is, i.e. a sword-and-sandal battle epic, but it's way over-hyped for what a lot a people make it out to be. It's certainly not #186 of all time.