Don't be blinded by the Frank Miller hype

Rating: 4/10 (11 March 2007)

I was very excited about seeing this movie. I like Frank Miller and I loved "Sin City," but "300" was just bad. Beautiful, but bad. Acting was just average, story was horrible (the true historical account is actually more interesting), and all the monstrous soldiers were comical at best (a couple of times, the audience in the theater actually started laughing at the villains). An army of a million guys doesn't need to have monsters to look imposing. Random facial piercings are just silly, not scary. The hunchback was just lame. And why was Xerxes 10 feet tall? Even the fight scenes get tiresome after you see the same choreography in slow-motion over and over and over again. In "Sin City" the violence was put to good use. Here, it just got boring. I fully realize that they were trying to make a faithful adaptation of the comic book, but this was a story that didn't translate well once the drawings started moving (and talking in gruff, grumbly voices). Wait six months and rent it.