300 - 294 = 6 Well earned stars

Rating: 6/10 (1 October 2010)

More arrows than Robin Hood. More slushy sword slashing than Kill Bill. And more underrated than expected of the critics who balanced it firmly on the halfway mark. It may not live up to Snyder's most recent graphic novel adaptation but it's a should-be-3D action epic that kicks with an extra 'This is Sparta!' Unlike the diplomatic and looming dilemma his Watchmen adaptation cast over the film like a suffocating tyrant of grim news of nuclear war, 300 takes the less radical and more hands on approach to their strenuous problem of how to save Sparta from the impending threat of Persian destruction.
Gerard (Butler) and his small squadron of loyal and ridiculously muscular soldiers embark to act before their advantage of leaving the village for the safety of women and children gets the better of them. It doesn't delve too much into the political side of the war (not sure about whether the graphic novel did) especially when there are throats to be cut in ferocious but terrific style.
The backdrop to the massacres while being so blatantly beautiful not to be CGI, it's a rare sepia-esquire faÃ§ade showing the times they are fighting in, such as the lesser impressive beige colours in Gladiator or the T.V. series of Rome. However, ironically the heavy handed use of CGI can often make the film feel overcooked and lacking humane substance to such an inhumane film (not that I was expecting lengthy sessions of mourning for their slaughter or many layers of depth under the visuals).
Definitely a visual treat, particularly the slow-mo scene which terrifically isn't like anything on screen ever seen in a film, in spite of slow moving murder being a common screen spectacle.