A bit of a let-down

Rating: 5/10 (12 August 2007)

I've heard a lot of good things about this film. So when I finally got round to watching it, I was hugely disappointed. Perhaps this was because I watched it at 4 o'clock in the morning on a long-haul flight with no leg-room, and was therefore thoroughly disgruntled at the time, but looking back on it I really can't see why this film has been so highly praised. Even though I'm a socialist, I have little problem with the fairly blatant right-wing attitude of the film. I've always thought that I can still enjoy a film even if I don't agree with its message. But that wasn't why I didn't like this film.
The simple fact of the matter is that this film is dull. I was promised a mindlessly violent action film, which would be fine with me. But it just didn't excite me at all. It seemed that Zack Snyder had recently found the 'slow-mo' button on his camera, and went a bit overboard with the celebration. I'm all for inventive camera-work, but I'm pretty sure that over half the film was shot in slow-motion. And if I ever have to hear Gerard Butler utter the word 'SPAARRRRRTANS!' one more time I will certainly not be a happy bunny. I suppose the general consensus was that it would be a rousing battle cry for the first couple of times. When that number gets into 3 figures, it loses its impact.
Maybe one of the other areas where this film falls down is that I simply couldn't give a tinker's cuss about any of the characters. I really didn't care who dies and who survives, because I couldn't work out why the Spartans were the good guys and the Persians were the bad guys. The main dividing factor seemed to be that the Persians were more ugly and generally more deformed. Therefore they are evil. A wonderful moral message for everyone.
I can understand why people would like this film. It's just that I don't. To be honest, it bored me, despite its obvious popularity.