Good but not great

Rating: 8/10 (7 March 2007)

No Spoilers The Digital Cinematography and the wardrobes were spectacular. The Persians and the various fighters were so well done and the spartan cloaks really got your arm chair general blood going. Everything else was just 'pretty good'. The problem with this movie is that it simply came a little too late. So many aspects of the film had already been beat to death. The lamenting sound of a woman singing in some foreign language during scenes of sorrow or death. The slow motion action sequences (however the first clash between persian and Greek was awesome). The woman walking through the wheatfield scenes reminded you too much of gladiator. The speeches are pretty good but when he finally says "This is Sparta!!!!" you cant help but laugh a little bit. The characters really weren't developed well either as i didn't really care whether the spartans lived or died (of course you knew going into it that they would die) but i didn't really care about their sacrifices either. I understand that this is not a completely faithful interpretation of the event and i had no problem with that. It is a different take from what we have discovered to have happened, yet the different story itself was rather weak. Then again its based off of a comic and although i am not a comic reader i think its safe to say that it lacks the depths of novel turned movies. The glorification of and dehumanization of one or both sides unfortunately often makes for a pretty boring storyline without much emotion. As dramatic and straightforward as the battle of thermopylae was, i believe they could have done much better in evincing emotions from the viewer as well. However, as an action movie, there is so much that the girl behind me wouldn't shutup about how she was going to be sick. Its a good movie to watch because the fight scenes are pretty good and the colors are fantastic but i left wanting more of a story.