300

Rating: 8/10 (17 March 2007)

300 is based on the graphic novel of the same name by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley. The film takes place in 5th century B.C. and is about the battle of Thermopylae in which 300 Spartan soldiers lead by King Leonidas fought Xerxes and the Persian army. The film shows us several of the battles until one side finally won. The film uses real actors, but was filmed in front of a blank screen and then the background was made digitally and many of what you end up seeing is digital including some of the animals in the movie, the background as I already mentioned and right down to the gore from the battle scenes. Having really liked the film Sin City which was based on graphic novels by Frank Miller and was also a film he co-directed I was waiting in a lot of anticipation for 300. Overall, I was fairly impressed, but I did have a few problems with the film that would have otherwise probably lead me to give it a higher rating. I will start off with my few negatives about the film. First of all the dialogue in the film was not very good. There is not a lot of conversations in this film seeing as most of it is battles, but when the characters did talk their vocabulary consisted of lines that you would only find in a non very well written comic book. I realize comic books or graphic novels aren't known for having great dialogue and conversations, but having also read the Sin City graphic novels I felt that they often had very good conversations and in the stories that required narration I thought it worked quite well. Maybe I'm being a little hard on the film for this seeing as it does take place in the 5th century and a film about battles isn't supposed to sound like a Shakespeare play, so maybe I should cut it a little bit of slack, but still I thought the characters could have talked a little better and said things that would not later be considered something that would later turn into some sort of catchphrase for wrestling or something in the same vain. The only other complaint I had about the film was the pacing. At times the film moved really well and I was really getting into it which was great, but there were a few scenes that kind of dragged on for me and had they been edited or arranged a little differently I thought it could have had a bigger impact on me and would have drawn me closer into the film. Those being my only flaws of the film I will get to the positives of it. I will start by saying that the way they digitally made this film makes it look gorgeous and I really liked the style of the film that was really enhanced by this look. Except for a few scenes the movie moved fairly well and at one point I was surprised the movie was already done by the time it was over. Also for a movie that relied heavily on stylized battle scenes for the most of it's running time the film did manage to entertain for most of that time whereas in other films it could have become tiresome and tedious. For being a great looking and action packed and entertaining film I will recommend 300, but don't go in looking for anything remotely historically accurate or to be blown away by acting and dialogue because you won't find that here. On the other hand what you may find may just be what you are looking for in a movie anyways.