300 a review w/ spoilers

Rating: 8/10 (27 March 2007)

I bring you my review on Frank Millar's 300. So ready your breakfast and eat hearty, for tonight WE DINE IN HELL!!  Sorry I may have gotten a little carried away, on with the review.
So let me first say that this is a fictional movie, it's based on a Frank Millar graphic novel called 300, which was in turn was loosely based and inspired by a movie called the 300 Spartans, which all in all is based and inspired by "historical" accounts and mythology. So this is not a history movie, don't go in to it thinking it is, cause its not plan and simple. Get your history lesson somewhere else like maybe an accredited Educational institution. OK now on with the review, but before I go one let me remind people that there may be spoilers, so if you don't want to know any thing that could possible ruin the movie for you then don't read any further.
The movie takes places in ancient Sparta. The Spartans are a race of warriors, trained and raised from the time they can walk to be fighting' machines. Raised to feel no pain, to feel no fear, to instill fear in their enemies and never back down from a fight. They are a whole race of perfect, efficient and ruthless combat hungry soldiers, where honor can be found in a glorious death on the battlefield. The movie is about the most glorious Spartan battle, the Battle of Thermopylae (Hell's Gate) of 480 BC, a battle in which 300 Spartans (get the title of the movie yet) and a band of Greek Soldiers and slaves fought the seemingly countless numbers of the invading Persian Army. The Spartans were lead by their king, Leonidas, played by Rodrigo Santoro, as they defended the mountain pass of Thermopylae. Out numbered hundreds to one, the 300 Spartans kept the invading horde at bay for 3 days and 3 nights and made the Persian king Xerxes, played by Rodrigo Santoro, fear the name of Sparta and lose all taste for battle. And as Leonidas defends his peoples' lands, freedoms and lives from a foreign aggressor, Queen Gorgo, played by Lena Headey, must defend Sparta from the inside, as bureaucrats and politicians attempt to sale her people and her king to the enemy. So yeah that's pretty much how the story goes, now to the review.
So with the plot out of the way time to start the reviewing or critiquing portion of this little ditty. Right then, let me start by saying  HELL FU*KING YEA! This movie rocked, there's so much about this movie that kicked ass, and I mean lots of ass. But lets start with plot and generally speaking it was pretty OK by me. Sure it's a comic book envision of "history" but as long as you don't go in to it looking for a history lesson or looking for a movie to change your meaning of life and just have fun with the story you'll do fine. It's a story of freedom over enslavement, bravery over submission and honor above all else; where can you go wrong? Sure its a testosterone pumping, sword swinging action flick but it works, trust me, or don't I don't really care.
Next lets talk acting and casting, which if you ask me were both spot on. Rodrigo Santoro was perfect as the king of Sparta, hell he made me want to take up arms and fight to the death, truly a great performance. Lena Headey was as beautiful as she was strong willed. She provided pretty much the only female lead in the movie and did so with great passion and vigor. The whole movie is narrated by David Wenham and he does such a wonderful job telling the story, you just get lost in his voice. The rest of the Spartans and other random people were also pretty spot on, now don't get me wrong, does any one on this cast deserve a Oscar for best acting no but they did a great job with the material. The same goes for the dialog, over all good time with a bunch of great one liners that will stay with you days after the movie as you scream "GIVE THEN NOTHING BUT TAKE FROM THEM EVERYTHING!!" to an unsuspecting passer by. What could have been cheesy and chewy came out rather powerful and enjoyable.
Now the biggest plus in this movie are the Visuals; the action, CG and cinematography were all just brilliant. If you want a great action movie then this is the one for you, people get chopped, stabbed, cut, and dismembered all over the place, it's fantastic. The combat scenes and swordplay were beautifully choreographed for full testosterone pumping potential (on top of the action there's enough gratuitous nude boobs to help you along the way, the red headed oracle has a great pair if you ask me). The entire movie is CG enhanced very beautifully; it's live action with some computer help, it makes for some pretty stuff to look at. And on top of that the shooting and cinematography was all very good, I don't know how else to say it FU*KING WOW! So there you have it, all the positives of this movie, now on to the negatives and well I don't have any. So again, there's nothing I didn't not like about this movie, every thing was OK, good, or great, but again it's not perfect. So in light of all the action, the great affects, T&A and over all coolness I give this movie a strong 8. If you like battle movies or epics like Troy or Braveheart, then you'll like this cause this movie is Troy on Steroids. Differently something I plan on owning and watching multiple times. So there you have it, my thoughts and views on Frank Millar's 300.