Oh, for the love of Greece!

Rating: 1/10 (12 March 2009)

I heard nothing but praise for 300. Having seen it, I must say I was sorely disappointed.
The main praise came from the film's unique look. Unique? Yeah, it looks like an XBOX game turned movie. And the dialogue makes it look even more like that ("Let's go for a walk" Meanwhile, I'm thinking: "New Level! Kill the Persian Sentries!"). As for the performances, the only actor who was really good was Gerald Butler. His character was the only interesting one! Everyone else was really dull and boring.
The beginning of the movie? Completely messed up. Irrelevant sex, killing a wolf in the wintertime to become king (?), etc. The movie was constantly slowing down then speeding up (I grew completely sick of this by the end- just about everything seemed to be in slo-mo), the blood spatters were overemphasized, over-exaggerated, and quickly became "same old, same old", people jumped ten feet away when they were stabbed (?), legs and hands were chopped off with no difficulty whatsoever, demons and deformed monsters fight for the Persians, and there's also the "tank" (whose main role is to provide the king with an opponent that lasts more than 35 seconds). Why all the praise for Snyder's direction style? I don't know. I hated it! And when we get to the historical inaccuracies, this movie takes the prize. I understand a movie can and should take artistic license, but rewriting history to this extent is unbearable!
The only part of the film worth watching is from the final battle onwards (although even then, there are a few "uhm." moments). So, to conclude, 300 is completely unjustified in all the praise it's gotten. Appealing to the superficial teen audience after gore, perhaps, but not a deep film in the least. A much better "Greece" movie is "Troy". It took plenty of liberties with Homer's Iliad, but at least it turned out as a good-to-watch movie, and not the year's annual gore-fest.