300 (Theatrical
Film Review)
Stars:
Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Dominic West, Rodrigo Santoro
Director:
Zack Snyder
Critic's
rating: 5 out of 10
Review
by Chuck O'Leary
300 is far from being the worst of
the comic-book inspired fodder we've gotten way too steady a diet of in recent
years, and it could have easily been a guilty pleasure. But the film
is ruined by a consistently ugly look that
combines purposely washed-out color and CGI overkill; it made me long
for the days when epics were photographed with the beauty and clarity of Lawrence of Arabia, Ben-Hur and Spartacus.
It's hard
to believe anyone other than 12-year-old boys could take this
seriously, and I watched most of 300
with an amused detachment with my amusement coming solely from the film's
political incorrectness -- let's just say that this isn't going to be a
favorite of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad due to the beating the
Persians take throughout this silly, gory adventure.
Video-game
loving fanboys might find the totally artificial look of 300 to be cool, but I
thought it looked like absolute vomit -- if this constitutes the future of
filmmaking then you can gladly count me out.
Miller
based his graphic novel on the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. where 300
Spartans defeated hordes of enemy Persians. The battle was also
portrayed in the 1962 film, The 300
Spartans, reportedly a childhood favorite of Miller's.
Directed
by Zack Snyder, who helmed 2004's inexplicably well-received remake of Dawn of the Dead, the film version of Miller's 300 begins
with messengers of Persian King Xerxes coming to ancient Sparta and
telling the Spartan King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) that he must bow to
the Persian Empire. This veiled threat doesn't sit too well with
Leonidas, leading him to promptly kill the messengers.
Leonidas
defiance means war, and soon he'll take 300 of his Spartan warriors to fight
thousands of Persians led by Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro). The greatly
outnumbered Spartans will only have swords and shields to fend off
thousands of Xerxes' forces, which include giant mutant slaves, bows &
arrows, fire bombs, and charging rhinos and elephants.
Meanwhile,
back home, Leonidas' wife, Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey), must deal with a
treacherous councilman (Dominic West) with designs on her and the throne.
From
about the 50-minute point on, 300
begins moving at a good clip while featuring countless impalings
and beheadings -- between Apocalypto,
Hannibal Rising and
now this, I've seen enough on-screen decapitations in the last four months to
last a lifetime. But unlike Braveheart
or Gladiator, 300 is a stilted,
often unintentionally humorous cartoon where none of the carnage
means anything. The screenplay (by Snyder, Kurt Johnstad and Michael
Gordon) and Snyder's direction are too shallow to make us care about the
characters.
The
battle sequences seem to alternate between slow-motion and the kind of choppily
edited sword swinging that's been hurting this type of movie for years.
And as mentioned before, the muddy look of the picture is enough to cause
serious eye strain.
The
makers of 300 have
done their best to make a film that captures the look of Miller's graphic
novel, and apparently they've succeeded. The film scores an extra point
for its political incorrectness, but otherwise stands as proof that
movies and graphic novels should remain separate entities.
NOTE: Since this review was posted, it received
such a strong reaction that we addressed it in our coverage of the HD-DVD Combo
+ DVD (Full Screen) release of the film, which you can read more about at this
link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5750/300+(2007;+HD-DVD/DVD+Combo
Further
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