David faces Goliath, and loses, because the world is bad..

Rating: 6/10 (15 May 2007)

I'll start by saying I didn't have high expectations of this. I had read the comic and it was mediocre. Frank Miller was a great comic creator in the 80s, but in decline ever since. Nevertheless this film adaptation of "300" is fairly decent, and a nice break from all the recent warrior borefests ("Troy", "Alexander", "Lord Of The Rings").
There are good reasons for this. The heavily stylized direction gives the whole thing a distinct fairy-tale-y vibe. This is almost a cartoon, but in a good, atmospheric way. In truth there is very little to set it apart from the comic, but it works anyway.
Then there are the nice little touches to the plot. They play a secondary role but it's these that distinguish the film. The co-operation between the corrupted priests and politicians might be a stereotype, but still very powerful. Maybe cause it rings so true. Also the quest for perfection in ancient Sparta, but at the expense of the weak.
Then in perhaps the most memorable scene of the film, the traitor Efialtes is being promised undreamed of pleasures by the almost hermaphrodite-like Xerxes, surrounded by an orgy of deformed lesbians and alien rituals. For a mainstream film, this sequence is very daring.
But alas, we still have to go through endless battles (albeit shot in style, almost choreographed), boring demagogue about bravery and patriotism, and too much melodrama (check the scene where some soldier hands Leonidas' wife some medallion, and she in turn hands it predictably to her son). All garnished with the appropriate larger-than-life orchestral score.
But hey, it's watchable. Who would've thought.