300 Review
“Tonight we dine in badass”
The Battle of Thermopylae, the one where 300 Spartans stood tall and mighty against the largest army in the world standing in the million range, and outlasting them essentially, is perfect fodder for Hollywood. It’s even better fodder for Frank Miller and his unique, exciting visual styling. And since Frank Millers style showed it could work in Hollywood, a la Sin City…we have a match made in heaven. Tack on director Zack Snyder or new Dawn of the Dead fame, and we are rolling right along. All prelimnary reviews, trailers, previews, spots all pointed to awesomeness. And to state clearly; 300 delivers.
It delivers because of Frank Millers visual style being brought to life by Snyder, bottom line. If there wasn’t a guided visual aesthetic, this movie suddenly becomes Troy 2. The action is heart pounding, the acting is on par and the effects are captivating and riveting. What seperates this movie from other Greek/Roman epics, is the contemporary feel brought to the film with the dialogue and the way it is presented. The movie is incredibly violent, with heads a rolling every few scenes. What I did enjoy about this movie thoroughly is the action and how true to it Snyder and Miller stayed. Too many Greek/Roman epics try to be really reliant on really shitty dialogue. It sounds like Shakespeare with a hang-over. While 300 falls into that trap every now and then, it rebounds with superbly scripted scenes.
I was impressed with the cohesiveness of this movie. That probably doesn’t make sense, and to be honest I’m not even really sure what it means. But let me take a shot at my own bullshit: It is a small story set on a large scale that becomes legend because of not the battle itself, but what it stood for. We’re talking ultimate underdog story here. And Snyder couldn’t have done a better job connecting us. Snyder really does have a flair for designing new and exciting action sequences and scenes that keep the audience involved. This movie had a perfect run time, but with some very slow parts. Like I said about the dialogue being shitty, this movie, when it does suffer from it, it feels like it’s moving in slow motion. The true emotion lie in Leonidas and his troops and their battle, not back in Sparta. The ending felt very forced and schlocky as well, but really just small chinks in the armor.
Look if you dig stylistic action movies that pump you up, check this sucker out. What Sin City had in the gritty cool, 300 has in the gritty hardcore. It’s a beast of a movie that really kicks the audiences ass and gives a great time for anyone in the theater. Barring some of the momentary lapses in classic Greek/Roman epic, 300 get’s 9 out of 10 Bones.
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