"Our arrows will blot out the sun!" ... "Then we will fight in the shade."

Rating: 5/10 (9 October 2008)

Frank Miller's graphic novel of ancient Greek battle becomes "Matrix"-ized splatter-flick, though one with a bemused smirk and black blood (making it somewhat more tolerable than horror-themed slaughters with a high body count). Gerard Butler plays the King of Sparta, facing a humiliating loss of freedom from neighboring Persia, whose massive army is mythical in its legion. Despite a mere 300 men under his leadership, and a warning from the Oracle that "all Greece will fall", Butler's Leonidas devises a plan to combat the Persian soldiers and their king, Xerxes (who has a God complex as well as a kinky bent). Despite the orgiastic violence (countless impalements, gorings, decapitations, and disembowlments) and the brawny six-packs on the men--nearly every one of them--the film isn't intrinsically charged (either sexually in the masochistic sense or vitally). The matte paintings and other elaborate effects never take on a life of their own, and the scenario doesn't sizzle. Instead, it's a fairly straight-forward war film, and many will see this as an attribute. The screenplay includes several good lines of sharp or jaded dialogue, and yet the macho brute force is one-note. The repetition eventually wears one down, and the picture has nowhere to go after the one-hour mark. ** from ****