A carnage epic and that is all

Rating: 5/10 (22 October 2012)

300's biggest strength is not its performances, nor its special effects, but its capable, crisp direction from Zack Snyder. Snyder's previous directing credits on the Dawn of the Dead remake couldn't have set him up for the large-scale directing performed on this kind of film, so perhaps his directing ways have inherently adapted to large, spacious locations.
Unfortunately, with all the disposable action at hand, exhaustive yelling, and minimal depth, which can all be more noticeable to moviegoers than scenery and locations, Synder's talent may go unnoticed. I've been told that Frank Miller's original graphic novel is transferred smoothly to the film, in which case fans will most likely enjoy the film based on its loyalty to its source material. All I can say is I have no desire to read the series. 300is sort of similar to that loud, belligerent, and sloppy houseguest, yet due to his lack of self-awareness is oblivious to these facts and continues doing them, much to the dismay of his friends and colleagues.
The plot concerns the infamous Battle of Thermopylae, which pitted Spartan king Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and his three hundred ill-equipped soldiers against King Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his massive Persian army. We see Leonidas in training as a fearless Spartan as a young child, and after kicking a Persian messenger down a deep, endless well, begins an almighty war between the two sides.
It's such a shame that writers Kurt Johnstad, Michael B. Gordon, and Snyder, respectively, dab more into battles and brutality on a grandiose-scale than the characters involved with such events. We spend so little time on Leonidas's motivations and development from a characterization perspective that he is nothing more than a faux-hero in this film; the one we side with because we're supposed to. The Xerxes character is the same way. His motivations and villainous behavior is depressingly shortchanged for excessively brutal, uninteresting carnage.
300, in some cases, plays like the instant replay shots from an ancient epic, with slow motions shots of spears piercing skulls, digitized blood squirting off the characters, and swords crossing in the heat of the moment. Speaking of the heavy digitization in the film, what adds to the artificial aspect of the film is the graphic use of computer animation. Some sequences are sweeping shots of hundreds of armed men ("armed" meaning in low trousers, swords, and a shield for good measure) charging to another side of several more armed men. The effects instantaneously flashed me back to watching Wolfgang Petersen's Troy, and how, again, motivations and character complexity was traded for battles with hundreds of digitized warriors.
Another film this reminded me of was Ridley Scott's Best Picture winner Gladiator, a film I was decidedly mixed on when I originally reviewed it and have grown to dislike more it over time. It had murky, muddy atmosphere and large landscapes of brown as far as the eye can see. Not to mention, we're already watching choppy, repetitive action sequences equivalent to a lengthy, drawn-out video game cut scene so perhaps the atmosphere is fitting.
300 is a "carnage epic," an epic where bloody, slow motion fight scenes are more valuable than interesting characters and identifiable motivations. It's a cold, robotic film, with no thought in its empty head and no soul in its shockingly toned body. Every part of the characters' deep and inner-psyche is as artificial as the CGI on their bodies.
Starring: Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, David Wenham, Dominic West, Vincent Regan, Rodrigo Santoro, and Michael Fassbender. Directed by: Zack Snyder.