300 - Movie Review

Forget Kingdom of Heaven, Troy, Alexander and all those so called “sandals and swords “movies. These films do not hold a candle to the amazing piece of artwork that is “300” Frank Miller, who did nothing but take a flashlight the size of the sun and shine it on his graphic novel work with green-lighting the film adaptation of "Sin City" in '05, is now back in film once again. But instead of Robert Rodriguez manning the directorial duties, Zach Snyder was tapped to do Miller's graphic novel "300", Znyder uses Rodriguez's revolutionary visual green screen technique utilized in "Sin City" to create the world of Sparta and the Battle of Thermopylae for "300". However, that isn't to say that the two movies look the same. Where "Sin City" felt like a comic book in black and white as per Miller's source material, "300" feels like a whole different world.


The story is very simple Spartan King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) leads 300 of his finest warriors into battle against the vast Persian armies of King Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro). Outnumbered beyond reason, Leonidas chooses to make his stand at the 'Hot Gates', a twisted mountain path facing the sea where the vastness of the Persian army will be of no use. Meanwhile, on the home front, Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) struggles with the corrupt and complacent Greek senate to send reinforcements to aid in the King's battle.


The actors are deserving of a word or two. Gerard Butler's Leonidas was a bit over the top, intense every moment. Some acting dynamics would have made his high-intensity scenes feel more intense. The same is true to come extent of the entire cast. Lena Headey was great as the unfortunately-named Queen Gorgo, and Dominic West was wonderfully malicious as the evil traitor Thereon.

300 was by far the best cinematic experience that I have had since Return of the King came out. And that’s quite saying something .The visuals in the movie were spectacular and unique. The colors used were perfect with an antique look about the whole movie. It was the best war movie I have ever seen with jaw dropping action sequences and tasteful slaying (blood was flying, but in a good way). Don’t go around looking for character development and chemistry between actors .If you are eager for one hell of a movie, Look no further.