Mar 19, 2007 10:59 AM
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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, Zach Snyder was tapped to do Miller's graphic novel "300", using 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.
Set around 480 B.C., 300 tells the tale of King Leonidis (Gerard Butler) fight against an entire Persian army lead by King Xerxes ( Rodrigo Santoro). This isn't an ordinary battle… it's 300 Spartans against thousands of Persians. With his faithful Captain (Vincent Regan), the strong Dilios (David Wenham), and the sometimes arrogant Stelios (Michael Fassbender), it is evident that this is no ordinary army. The Spartans are a breed of mankind born to be warriors. They've been trained since the day they learned to walk to be ruthless and fierce soldiers.
Leonidis wishes to put Sparta at war with the Persians, but it doesn't settle well with the Spartan council, mainly Theron (Dominic West) who has an agenda of his own. Against the wishes of the council, Leonidis ventures out with 300 of Sparta's best men to confront the Persians 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. There are rousing speeches, beautifcully choreograhed fights, excited young warriors and crusty old ones, a leader repeatedly yelling "Spartans!" in an English accent, and even a wheat field for a warrior to walk through.
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. Rodrigo Santoro was all makeup and no character as Xerxes. There is no character development as such..But for a movie spanning around 2 hrs with half of the screen time in brutal battles, you don’t need any.
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. 300 excels at engaging its audience; it knows what it wants and how it wants it
