movie review of the 300

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I gave a four-star rating to " Sin City ," the 2005 film based on a graphic novel by Frank Miller . Now, as I deserve, I get "300," based on another work by Miller. Of the earlier film, I wrote prophetically: "This isn't an adaptation of a comic book, it's like a comic book brought to life and pumped with steroids." They must have been buying steroids wholesale for "300." Every single male character, including the hunchback, has the muscles of a finalist for Mr. Universe.

Both films are faithful to Miller's plots and drawings. "300," I learn, reflects the book almost panel-by-panel. They lean so heavily on CGI that many shots are entirely computer-created. Why did I like the first, and dislike the second? Perhaps because of the subject matter, always a good place to start. "Sin City," directed by Robert Rodriguez and Miller, is film noir, my favorite genre, taken to the extreme. "300," directed by Zack Snyder , is ancient carnage, my least favorite genre, taken beyond the extreme. "Sin City" has vividly- conceived characters and stylized dialogue. "300" has one-dimensional caricatures who talk like professional wrestlers plugging their next feud.

The movie involves a legendary last stand by 300 death-obsessed Spartans against a teeming horde of Persians. So brave and strong are the Spartans that they skewer, eviscerate, behead and otherwise inconvenience tens of thousands of Persians before finally falling to the weight of overwhelming numbers. The lesson is that the Spartans are free, and the Persians are slaves, although the Spartan idea of freedom is not appetizing (children are beaten to toughen them).

But to return to those muscles. Although real actors play the characters and their faces are convincing, I believe their bodies are almost entirely digital creations. They have Schwarzeneggerian biceps, and every last one of them, even the greybeards, wear well-defined six- packs on their abs. I can almost believe the star, Gerard Butler , may have been working out at Gold's Gym ever since he starred as the undernourished Phantom of the Opera, but not 300, 200 or even 100 extras. As a result, every single time I regarded the Spartans in a group, I realized I was seeing artistic renderings, not human beings.

Well, maybe that was the idea.

The movie presents other scenes of impossibility. Look at the long- shots of the massed Persians. There are so many they would have presented a logistical nightmare: How to feed and water them? Consider the slave-borne chariot that Xerxes pulls up in. It is larger that the imperial throne in the Forbidden City, with a wide staircase leading up to Xerxes. Impressive, but how could such a monstrosity be lugged all the way from Persia to Greece? I am not expected to apply such logic, I know, but the movie flaunts its preposterous effects.

And what about Xerxes ( Rodrigo Santoro ) himself? He stands around eight feet tall, I guess, which is good for 500 B.C. (Santoro's height in life: 6 feet, 2.75 inches). He towers over Leonidas (Butler), so we know his body isn't really there. But what of his face? I am just about prepared to believe that the ancient Persians went in for the piercing of ears, cheeks, eyebrows, noses, lips and chins. But his eyebrow have been plucked and re-drawn into black arches that would make Joan Crawford envious. And what about the mascara and the cute little white lines on the eyelids? When the Spartans describe the Athenians as "philosophers and boy-lovers," I wish they had gone right ahead to discuss the Persians.

The Spartans travel light. They come bare-chested, dressed in sandals, bikini briefs and capes. They carry swords and shields. At the right time, they produce helmets which must have been concealed in their loincloths. Also apples. And from the looks of them, protein shakes. They are very athletic, able to construct a towering wall of thousands of dead Persians in hours, even after going to all the trouble of butchering them. When they go into battle, their pep talks sound like the screams of drunken sports fans swarming onto the field.

They talk, as I suggested, like pro wrestlers, touting the big showdown between Edge and The Undertaker. "Be afraid!" they rumble, stopping just short of adding, "Be very afraid." They talk about going on the "warpath," unaware that the phrase had not yet been coined by American Indians. Their women, like Gorgo ( Lena Headey ), queen of Leonidas, are as bloodthirsty as their men, just like wrestler's wives.

All true enough. But my deepest objection to the movie is that it is so blood-soaked. When dialogue arrives to interrupt the carnage, it's like the seventh-inning stretch. In slow motion, blood and body parts spraying through the air, the movie shows dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands, of horrible deaths. This can get depressing.

In old movies, ancient Greeks were usually sort of noble. Now they have become lager louts. They celebrate a fascist ideal. They assume a bloodthirsty audience, or one suffering from attention deficit (how many disembowelings do you have to see to get the idea?). They have no grace and wisdom in their speech. Nor dignity in their bearing: They strut with arrogant pride. They are a nasty bunch. As Joe Mantegna says in " House of Games ," "You're a bad pony, and I'm not gonna bet on you." That's right before he dies, of course.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Rated R violence, nudity, sexuality

117 minutes

Lena Headey as Gorgo

Andrew Tiernan as Ephialtes

Vincent Regan as Captain

Gerard Butler as Leonidas

Peter Mensah as Messenger

Michael Fassbender as Stelios

Andrew Pleavin as Daxos

Dominic West as Theron

David Wenham as Dilios

Tom Wisdom as Astinos

Rodrigo Santoro as Xerxes

Stephen McHattie as Loyalist

Screenplay by

• Michael B. Gordon
• Kurt Johnstad

Directed by

• Zack Snyder

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Review: The '300': Ah, the fine-looking fighters of freedom-loving Sparta

By A.O. Scott

• March 8, 2007

300 Directed by Zack Snyder

The film "300" is about as violent as "Apocalypto" and twice as stupid. Adapted from a graphic novel by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley, it offers up a bombastic spectacle of honor and betrayal, rendered in images that might have been airbrushed onto a customized van sometime in the late 1970s. The basic story is a good deal older. It's all about the ancient Battle of Thermopylae, which unfolded at a narrow pass on the coast of Greece whose name translates as Hot Gates.

Hot Gates, indeed! Devotees of the pectoral, deltoid and other fine muscle groups will find much to savor as King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) leads 300 prime Spartan porterhouses into battle against Persian forces commanded by Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), a decadent self-proclaimed deity who wants, as all good movie villains do, to rule the world.

The Persians, pioneers in the art of facial piercing, have vastly greater numbers — including ninjas, dervishes, elephants, a charging rhino and an angry bald giant — but the Spartans clearly have superior health clubs and electrolysis facilities. They also hew to a warrior ethic of valor and freedom that makes them, despite their gleeful appetite for killing, the good guys in this tale. (It may be worth pointing out that unlike their mostly black and brown foes, the Spartans and their fellow Greeks are white.)

But not all the Spartans back in Sparta support their king on his mission. A gaggle of sickly, corrupt priests, bought off by the Persians, consult an oracular exotic dancer whose topless gyrations lead to a warning against going to war. And the local council is full of appeasers and traitors, chief among them a sardonic, shifty-eyed smoothy named Theron (Dominic West).

Too cowardly to challenge Leonidas man to man, he fixes his attention on Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey), a loyal wife and Spartan patriot who fights the good fight on the home front. Gorgo understands her husband's noble purpose. "Come home with your shield or on it," she tells him as he heads off into battle after a night of somber marital whoopee. Later she observes that "freedom is not free."

Another movie — Matt Stone and Trey Parker's "Team America," whose wooden puppets were more compelling actors than most of the cast of "300" — calculated the cost at $1.05. I would happily pay a nickel less, in quarters or arcade tokens, for a vigorous 10-minute session with the video game that "300" aspires to become. Its digitally tricked-up color scheme, while impressive at times, is hard to tolerate for nearly two hours, and the hectic battle scenes would be much more exciting in the first person. I want to chop up some Persians too!

There are a few combat sequences that achieve a grim, brutal grandeur, notably an early engagement in which the Spartans, hunkered behind their shields, push back against a Persian line, forcing enemy soldiers off a cliff into the water. The big idea, spelled out over and over in voice-over and dialogue in case the action is too subtle, is that the free, manly men of Sparta fight harder and more valiantly than the enslaved masses under Xerxes' command. Allegory hunters will find some gristly morsels of topicality, but you can find many of the same themes, conveyed with more nuance and irony, in a Pokémon cartoon.

Zack Snyder's first film, a remake of George Romero's "Dawn of the Dead," showed wit as well as technical dexterity. While some of that filmmaking acumen is evident here, the script for "300," which he wrote with Kurt Johnstad and Michael Gordon, is weighed down by the lumbering portentousness of the original book.

In time, "300" may find its cultural niche as an object of camp derision, like the sword-and-sandals epics of an earlier, pre-computer-generated-imagery age. At present, though, its muscle-bound, grunting self-seriousness is more tiresome than entertaining. Go tell the Spartans, whoever they are, to stay home and watch wrestling.

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The Frank Miller experience continues with the mythology of the ancient Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. where, according to legend and his graphic novel, 300 Spartan warriors went up against the barbarous hordes of the Persian god-king Xerxes.

By Kirk Honeycutt , The Associated Press February 14, 2007 8:00pm

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This review was written for the festival screening of “300.”

BERLIN — The Frank Miller experience continues in “300.” This is the second movie to transfer a muscular story and visuals from a Miller graphic novel to the screen. Instead of the neo-noir, pulp-fiction theater of cruelty in the Robert Rodriguez’s 2005 film “Sin City,” “300” dives into the mythology of the ancient Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. Here, according to the graphic novel by Miller and Lynn Varley, 300 Spartan warriors went up against the barbarous hordes of the Persian god-king Xerxes and died valiantly defending Greek notions of freedom and justice.

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Those turned off by the sex-and-violence cartoonery of “Sin City” can embrace “300,” which screened Out of Competition here. In epic battle scenes where he combines breathtaking and fluid choreography, gorgeous 3-D drawings and hundreds of visual effects, director Zack Snyder puts onscreen the seemingly impossible heroism and gore of which Homer sang in “The Iliad.” A raging hero mowing down multitudes with sword, shield and spear suddenly seems plausible.

The designed look of this alternative world, the abstraction and beauty of its topography, colors and forms, open up the human action to larger-than-life deeds and grand gestures that in a more realistic context would be pure camp. The film, which opens domestically March 9, will attract a sizable worldwide audience, skewering heavily male, of course.

Greece in the 5th century B.C. is a land truly favored by the gods, bathed in rich, harmonious dark chocolate, beige and gray colors. A prologue swiftly establishes the austere warrior city-state of Sparta, whose men are trained from birth to fight, to never retreat and never surrender.

The film’s hero, King Leonidas (Gerard Butler), has lived his entire life to fight this battle against the Persians. Its sole survivor, Dilios (David Wenham), is the one who narrates the tale. Messengers from the Persian army arrive in Sparta, arrogantly offering either capitulation or annihilation. Leonidas kills the messengers.

But political opportunism rules the Spartan Council, which insists that Leonidas consult the Oracle. This consists of beautiful young and drugged women controlled by sickly, corrupt priests. The Oracle refuses to release the Spartan army to its ruler as no battle can occur during an upcoming religious celebration.

So Leonidas has little choice but to “take a stroll” to the north with 300 of his best warriors as “bodyguards.” He chooses to engage the Persians in the Thermopylae pass, a narrow corridor between the steep cliffs of the Aegean Sea. Here the vast numbers of the enemy count for little since only a few can go up against Sparta’s best at any one time.

The stage is thus set for a cinematic meal: A succession of charges by Persian forces — slave warriors, physical oddities, African animals, magic wizards and an elite guard called the Immortals in black Darth Vader masks — is slaughtered by the 300. Snyder instinctively knows when to shift to slow motion or quick stop-action to catch the brilliant athleticism of his fighting choreography. This is thrilling stuff.

Then comes Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) himself, a bejeweled, depraved giant carried on a high tower by his slaves. The god-king tries unsuccessfully to seduce Leonidas in a homoerotic passage as the ancient world stands still.

But it is a deformed and pathetic creature, Ephialtes (Andrew Tiernan), an outcast Spartan, who betrays the 300 by showing Xerxes a hidden path leading behind Spartan lines. The 300 are doomed yet die “beautiful deaths.”

Adapting Miller’s take on Spartan battle wear, Snyder and costume designer Michael Wilkinson strip the warriors down to essentials: a helmet, shield, red capes, loin cloths and scandals in warm colors. All the rest is manly flesh. The Persians, by contrast, are dressed in all sorts of jewels, peacock color, gold, purple, black — a hooker’s ball of exotic, foreign and decadent costumes.

Snyder and his writers Kurt Johnstad and Michael B. Gordon open up a second front of villainy back home as wily politician Theron (Dominic West) manipulates the council against sending reinforcements and crudely takes Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) sexually. This is weak and unconvincing, but it does get the writers around the historical fact that the expedition against the Persians, fully supported by the city-state, probably numbered around 7,000 rather than 300.

Butler is a paragon of manhood as the fine warrior-king, but in a Frank Miller world there is no time for introspection and doubt, making him a two-dimensional creature in this 3-D world.

Headey, looking alarmingly skinny, seems more like a fashion model than reigning queen. Vincent Regan as the Captain is a man with a ferocious appetite for killing. All other roles are somewhat perfunctory as Spartan ideals overrule much of an inner life.

Obviously, the true stars here are the armies of technicians, designers, fight choreographers and cinematographer Larry Fong, who collaborate on this stylized vision of the ancient world. Then add Tyler Bates’ robust, haunting and soulful music.

What isn’t clear after two Frank Miller graphic novel movies is where this technique is leading. So far it has served only exaggerated blood, guts and sex. “300” suggests that it might create worlds of myth and fantasy not necessarily ruled by mayhem. If not, though, it’s going to get old, even ancient, very fast.

300 Warner Bros. Pictures Warner Bros. Pictures in association with Legendary Pictures and Virtual Studios present a Mark Canton/Gianni Nunnari production Credits: Director: Zack Snyder Screenwriters: Kurt Johnstad, Michael B. Gordon Based on the graphic novel by: Frank Miller, Lynn Varley Producers: Gianni Nunnari, Mark Canton, Bernie Goldmann, Jeffrey Silver Executive producers: Frank Miller, Deborah Snyder, Craig J. Flores, Thomas Tull, William Fay, Scott Mednick, Ben Waisbren Director of photography: Larry Fong Production designer: James Bissell Visual effects supervisor: Chris Watts Music: Tyler Bates Costume designer: Michael Wilkinson Editor: William Hoy Cast: King Leonidas: Gerald Butler Queen Gorgo: Lena Headey Dilios: David Wenham Theron: Dominic West Captain: Vincent Regan Stelios: Michael Fassbinder Astinos: Tom Wisdom Xerxes: Rodrigo Santoro Ephialtes: Andrew Tiernan Running time — 117 minutes MPAA rating: R 

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• DVD & Streaming
• Action/Adventure , Drama , Sci-Fi/Fantasy , War

Content Caution

In Theaters

• Gerard Butler as King Leonidas; Lena Headey as Queen Gorgo; Dominic West as Theron; David Wenham as Dilios; Vincent Regan as Captain; Michael Fassbender as Stelios; Tom Wisdom as Astinos; Andrew Pleavin as Daxos; Andrew Tiernan as Ephialtes; Rodrigo Santoro as Xerxes; Stephen McHattie as Loyalist

Home Release Date

• Zack Snyder

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• Warner Bros.

Movie Review

“Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie.”

So says a stone epitaph in Thermopylae, Greece, commemorating 300 Spartan warriors who sacrificed their lives in an epic battle against the invading forces of the Persian king Xerxes in 480 B.C. Based on a graphic novel by Frank Miller (Sin City) , 300 mythologizes and immortalizes these soldiers’ absolute commitment to secure their homeland from tyranny.

The story begins amid political discord. On the eve of Xerxes’ invasion, a Spartan oracle has foretold doom if the city’s king, Leonidas, sallies forth into combat during an important religious festival. But the ferocious Leonidas—the epitome of Sparta’s fiercely disciplined martial culture—puts little stock in the gods’ supposed warning. Defying the oracle and the city’s governing council, Leonidas takes leave of his wife, Queen Gorgo (a lioness in her own right), and marches with 300 men from his personal guard to meet the enemy.

Leonidas’ plan to defeat Xerxes’ 100-nation force—which numbers in the hundreds of thousands—requires defending a narrow mountain pass near the sea known as the Hot Gates— Thermopylae in Greek. Joined by 700 volunteer fighters from Thespiae, Leonidas and his professional soldiers prepare to take their stand. Defeat is likely, but they believe their sacrifice will buy time for the city-states of Greece to rally a larger army (a cause Gorgo pursues in her husband’s absence).

The Spartans’ fabled military prowess handily repels the first waves of Xerxes’ army. Neither Xerxes’ elite “Immortal” troops, cavalry, a rhinoceros nor even elephants can dislodge Leonidas and his men from the pass. Enter: treachery and betrayal. History (and this movie) tells the rest.

Positive Elements

Leonidas and Gorgo repeatedly make impassioned speeches about the values Sparta holds dear. These include glory, reason, justice, respect, family and freedom. Bravery is hardly a strong enough word to describe these warriors’ fearlessness. Dying on Sparta’s behalf is the highest possible honor, which yields statements such as Gorgo’s words to her husband as he departs: “Come back with your shield or on it.”

Spartan war tactics depend on interdependence. Leonidas says, “A Spartan’s strength is the warrior next to him.” The king’s willingness to sacrifice himself for his men contrasts with Xerxes’ megalomania; the Persian ruler willingly sends hundreds to their death with no concern for their welfare. The only men Leonidas invites to join his war party are those with sons, lest any family’s line be wiped out.

Leonidas and Gorgo enjoy a strong marriage as equals (in a culture that’s known for generally treating women as second-class citizens). Leonidas also displays affection for his 6-year-old son. And he teaches him, “Fear is constant. Accepting it makes you stronger.”

A soldier known as Captain regrets never telling his son, who’s perished in battle, how he truly felt. “I don’t regret that he died. I regret that I never told him I loved him the most. He stood by me with honor. He [represented] all that was best in me.” A mortally wounded Spartan says to his king, “It is an honor to die by your side.” Leonidas replies, “It’s an honor to have lived at yours.” The only words Leonidas wants delivered to his people are simply, “Remember us.”

Spiritual Elements

Spiritual content in 300 revolves around two axes: the Greek belief in a pantheon of gods and oracles who communicate with them; and Xerxes’ insistence that he is a god to be worshiped.

Leonidas visits an oracle, an entranced young woman who’s “tended to” (more on that below) by horribly disfigured men called Ephors. While there, Leonidas is told, “Trust the gods. Your blasphemies have cost us enough already.” The king dismisses the Ephors as “diseased old mystics.” In passing, Leonidas tells his troops to “pray to the gods.” A storm that sinks many Persian ships is attributed to Zeus’ wrath.

Xerxes is frequently described (by himself and his underlings) in divine terms, such as “god of gods,” and he mimics scriptural language when he says things about himself such as, “The lord of hosts is prepared to forgive all.” He speaks of his divine power and promises (almost like Satan’s temptation of Jesus) to make Leonidas the warlord of all Greece if he submits. His Immortals are described as “Persian ghosts, hunters of men’s souls.”

Sexual Content

The oracle is barely clothed in a gauzy sheet that reveals her breast. It’s implied that the Ephors use her sexually at will, and one licks the oracle’s neck as she delivers her prophecy. A graphic sex scene between Leonidas and his wife includes movement, his uncovered rear and several shots of her breasts. Xerxes invites Ephialtes into his harem and uses promises of sexual pleasure to get him to betray the Spartans. Several women are topless and kiss one another in this sensual, orgy-like scene; others are nearly naked.

Queen Gorgo’s chief opponent on the council is a devious man named Theron; in exchange for his help, she allows him to have his way with her. It’s implied (as he violently grabs her) that he’s virtually raping her. (We briefly glimpse her robe fall to the ground.)

Spartan women, especially the queen, wear cleavage-baring robes without undergarments. The Spartan warriors themselves fight shirtless, and the camera often focuses on their physiques. An offhand reference is made to Athenians being “boy lovers.”

Violent Content

Let’s put it this way: Neither torsos nor appendages fare well in 300 . Perhaps thousands of soldiers find themselves on the receiving end of spears, swords and arrows for about an hour and 15 minutes of this two-hour film. A giant is knifed in the eye. Extremities get hacked off (at least three heads, half-a-dozen arms, legs, hands, etc.). After one decapitation, the father of that soldier cradles his son’s headless body (the head lies nearby). Spartans repeatedly wander the battlefield skewering unfortunates who’ve not quite perished yet. (“No mercy” is a Spartan watchword.) Add to such brutality scenes depicting piles of corpses—some skewered on stakes, others “attached” to a tree with arrows and still others used to construct a defensive wall—and you’ve an epic amount of violent imagery in this film.

Non-battlefield violence includes Leonidas spearing a wolf in the mouth as a youth; 7-year-old Spartans-in-training pummeling and bruising each other; older boys receiving whip lashings to learn how to resist pain; a soldier’s wound being cauterized by white-hot metal; and Queen Gorgo stabbing (and killing) a traitorous Spartan. When a herald of Xerxes arrives in Sparta dangling a chain of skulls for emphasis, Leonidas shoves him and several members of his party into a seemingly bottomless pit. Xerxes’ executioner is a monstrosity of a man whose arms have been replaced with blades (which he dutifully uses to dislodge heads of failed generals).

Crude or Profane Language

In telling a story about a war hundreds of years before the time of Christ, filmmakers weren’t able to logically include abuses of His name. Likewise, they knew it’d be a pretty far stretch to include f-words or s-words. So this R-rated-in-every-other-way movie fades to credits with only one mild profanity (“h—uva) to its name.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Leonidas describes the oracle as “a drunken adolescent girl”—and she definitely looks as if she’s in an artificially induced stupor. During the orgy sequence in Xerxes’ tent, some of the people in the background hold goblets presumably containing wine.

Other Negative Elements

Sparta’s devotion to warcraft has a terrible dark side. When baby boys are born, they’re evaluated for physical defect. Imperfect newborns are discarded into a pit to die. (We see a pile of skulls indicating this happens regularly.) Spartan law also makes retreat from battle illegal. Not surprisingly, revenge and glory are closely connected. When Captain tells Leonidas, “I fill my heart with hate,” the king replies, “Good.”

Ephialtes is a disfigured, hunchbacked man whose father was a Spartan but fled the city because he refused to kill his misshapen son. He raised Ephialtes to be a true Spartan warrior. But the man’s deformities prevent him from functioning as an equal. Embittered, Ephialtes betrays his people.

The queen is greeted with derision by the Spartan ruling council, which normally would refuse to let any woman, even a queen, speak to them. When Theron betrays her before the council, she spits in his face. Both the Ephors and Theron are secretly taking bribes from Xerxes to keep the Spartans out of battle.

I can’t remember the last time I went to a movie so violent and tragic. But that’s only the first half of the sentence. Because afterwards, I watched as scores of moviegoers (mostly men) walked to their cars laughing and pounding each other on the back. You’d have thought we’d all just seen Top Gun for the first time. Such is the influence of the latest big-screen Frank Miller adaptation, a hyper-violent, hyper-masculine ode to honor and duty by way of blood, blood and more blood. Did I mention the blood ?

Stylistically, 300 ‘s melees recall the Wachowski Bros. Matrix trilogy and V for Vendetta . Just as those films raised the visual-effects bar, so 300 could well become a new cinematic benchmark. Combat feels dance-like in its choreography, alternating between real time and slow motion. This results in highly stylized violence—which is all the more emphasized by plumes of blood erupting from combatants’ wounds. Regarding the film’s look, director Zack Snyder commented, “It’s not trying to be reality. The blood is treated like paint, like paint on a canvas. It’s not Saving Private Ryan .” Snyder also admitted he was more interested in creating visually compelling shots than he was recreating historically accurate fight scenes. “It’s bulls—,” he said of some combat elements, “but it looks good.”

Looking good felt to me like Gladiator on steroids—with several graphic sex scenes tossed in to add titillation. Despite its consistent and at times moving emphases on duty and sacrifice, family and freedom, this blood-bathed epic remains so thoroughly saturated with visceral imagery that those virtues risk getting buried in battle.

Given that, I think I can safely say that the enthusiasm of the crowd I witnessed had much less to do with the film’s positive themes than the fact that the filmmakers have managed to make slaughter (and sensuality) look so very cool.

Adam R. Holz

After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.

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300: Rise of an Empire

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It's bound to hit some viewers as an empty exercise in stylish gore, and despite a gonzo starring performance from Eva Green, 300: Rise of an Empire is a step down from its predecessor.

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I've waited a long time to see 300 , the movie inspired by Frank Miller's graphic novel about the Spartans. If nothing else, based on the trailers I was expecting a movie that at least visually, would blow me away. My only concern going in was that I had heard that there were WAY too many slow-motion scenes... in fact that every single battle sequence was in slow-mo. On the plus side, if ever there seemed to be a film that would connect directly into the testosterone center of the male brain this looked like it was going to be it.

For the most part, it delivers big time.

300 tells the (no doubt highly romanticized) story of the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C., where King Leonidas of Sparta made a stand against the self-proclaimed god-king of Persia and his massive army. Leonidas had 300 Spartan warriors and a few hundred other Greek conscripts as back up to go up against an army purported to be one million men strong.

Via narration the film opens with a short history lesson about Sparta and it's people, and you immediately get a sense of who they are. There are no wimps or physically inferior people in this civilization... only the strong are allowed to live. Both the men and women are forceful, proud people, with some male children destined to become ultimate warriors who begin training as soon as they can walk.

We see Leonidas (played with great gusto by Gerard Butler) as a seven year old in combat training where his instructor pulls no punches, and then at about 10 or 12 years old where he undergoes the rite of passage in the wild. He will either return as a man or he will not return at all. Cut to him at 40 and as king, where he and his beautiful wife Queen Gorgo (played by Lena Headey) obviously rule together. A messenger from the king of Persia comes to tell Leonidas he must kneel before King Xerxes (played by the insanely tall Rodrigo Santoro) and submit to Persian rule. Leonidas gives a typical Spartan response when he refuses... with feeling .

Sure, there is some political maneuvering going on as part of the story back in Sparta, where the Queen tries to convince the council to send the rest of the Spartan army to reinforce the 300, and there are a couple of erotic nude scenes to keep the male audience happy (that Oracle... woah). And the reason for the politics is that King Leonidas went against the wishes of the council and the creepy, lecherous and leperous high priests in deciding to attack the Persian army. He takes 300 men to face King Xerxes at Thermopylae, where a narrow canyon will allow him to hold off the hordes of invaders with relatively few men. And this, my friends is why you go see this movie.

But the BATTLE is what 300 is all about.

The fight scenes in this movie are incredible... the word "glorious" comes to mind. Yes, there is a lot of slow motion but it serves to accentuate the battle. It's mesmerizing to watch this small band of men go against everything Xerxes throws at them. No matter what, they don't back down. They take on regular foot soldiers, archers, creepy "immortals" who are Xerxes elite fighting force, a wierd giant mutant guy who apparently doesn't understand that getting stabbed hurts and is supposed to stop you, and on up from there. These men led by King Leonidas are the very definition of "Never Say Die."

The only thing that kept this movie from getting a NC-17 rating for violence is the fact that it's shot in sepia tones and the blood that appears onscreen look black (as it did in Lord of the Rings ). And there is a LOT of blood.

Now I'm not a big critic of the MPAA, but there are some things they decide that are just plain silly as far as I'm concerned. You can have gore galore in a movie, but as long as the blood isn't red they'll cut it some slack. Wierd, but I digress.

Aside from the amazing battles, I enjoyed the performances of the leads. Butler was intense and feral when required, yet still had a quiet side as Leonidas. David Wenham (who played Faramir in Lord of the Rings ) does a somber job as Leonidas friend and the narrator, and Lena Headey as Leonidas' queen was both beautiful and strong onscreen, plus with an outfit or two that rivals the famous Princess Leia metal "slave bikini." :-)

I've also never seen such a huge collection of six-pack abs outside of a bodybuilder competition. I imagine that Gold's Gym and 24 Hour Fitness are going to see spikes in new membership numbers for the next couple of weeks as this movie makes millions of coach potato men feel physically insignificant as they stuff popcorn in their faces.

On the negative side, I thought the film went on a bit too long and started to run out of steam towards the end. The political aspect of the film that takes place back in Sparta was not compelling when compared to what was going on at the battlefield. Much like watching an American Idol performance where a big finish can make you forget the mediocre beginning and middle, I had to remember how great the first 80% of 300 was and not judge it only on how it felt towards the end.

Overall, a great ride that will get you fired up if you're a guy, and although it's very bloody I suppose there is lots of eye candy for the ladies. :-)

Our Rating:

• Movie Reviews
• 4 star movies

23 Mar 2007

NaN minutes

The word ‘Spartan’ nestles in the English lexicon as a synonym for words like ‘austere’ and ‘disciplined’. But while the Spartans of ancient Greece were all those things and more, none of these locutions captures the essence of this unique people. A better modern-day equivalent to ‘Spartan’ might be ‘belligerent nutcase’, and anyone in doubt need look no further than 300, which stands as an opulent, brutal and bloody declaration of that fact. An adaptation of Sin City creator Frank Miller’s graphic novel, 300 recounts the country’s finest hour: Sparta kicked plenty of ass over the ages, but it was at Thermopylae, in 480 BC, that she earned eternal renown. What those warriors achieved in life (and lots of death) still echoes through eternity.

Trumpeted by its makers as “Gladiator meets Sin City”, the cinematic rendition of 300 is fiercely loyal to its bronze-and-crimson-coloured graphic progenitor and, as such, is as far removed from reality as the last batch of Celebrity Big Brother housemates. Thermopylae was a real battle, the opening salvo of the Second Persian War no less. The Spartan king Leonidas, played here by Gerard Butler, did defend the ‘Hot Gates’ in Northern Greece with 300 hoplites, against an invading Persian army that Herodotus, the ‘father of history’, numbered at one million strong. While modern scholars insist that the Persian horde, vast as it was, totalled no more than 200,000 men, Miller and Snyder prefer Herodotus’ estimate. They also lift from his dialogue (“Then we’ll fight in the shade” is a line from the great historian, for example), although both happily depart from his source material when counting colossal elephants among the Persian forces.

Still, much like a football match between England and Brazil, 300 vs. 200,000 is hardly a fair contest, Leonidas and co. facing laughably overwhelming odds. Unlike the English football team, however, they offered a remarkable display of mettle — and indeed metal — against an army hundreds of times their size. Their story is the stuff of legend, and that thought was paramount in Miller’s mind when consigning his vision to the page. For Miller’s intention was that 300 should be historically _in_accurate — this was his bid to mythologize an actual event, lending to it the power and grace (and a healthy amount of exaggeration) normally associated with classical epic. If the battle at Thermopylae had occurred a millennium earlier, it would no doubt have formed the basis of a legend every bit as fantastic and entertaining as the works of Homer (much more lively than the pallid cinematic offering that was Troy, based on Homer’s The Iliad).

It’s somewhat ironic that whereas Troy, retelling a story rooted in myth, sought to present a world devoid of the unusual, 300, while recounting a story drawn from fact, is as fanciful as any Homeric yarn (cue fat freak with sharpened tusks for arms and a bard with a goat’s head). Snyder is entirely faithful to Miller’s intent, however, and he has cooked up an astonishing visual feast, spinning a tale that at times mimics the graphic novel frame-by-frame, the raucous content just what you’d expect to hear from some ancient, toothless sage telling hero tales around a campfire. In fact, the film is framed as a saga related by the storyteller Dilios (David Wenham, neither ancient nor toothless). It is this mythic conviction that underpins the film’s failings and informs its successes.

Chief among the latter stand the Spartans themselves, Butler and co. sporting as much muscle as a bouncers’ convention and offering a convincing portrayal of a Spartan crack troop. Fighting in nothing more than big pants, helmet and shield, there are more six-packs on show than at an Aussie off-licence, but they largely manage to convey hard-assedness rather than homoeroticism. The Spartan battle formations and fighting styles are entirely accurate, and some of the battle choreography ranks among the finest committed to film. Snyder makes us believe that these Spartans really could dispatch 100 inferior men apiece, and still have the energy to run a marathon afterwards. Crucially, Butler convinces as a leader of men, bellowing orders, wisecracking or bolstering confidence as the occasion demands, leading from the front and laying out several battalions’ worth of the enemy. Leonidas — noble, stubborn and deadly when roused — may be not be complex, but Butler has the conviction and charisma needed to carry it off.

Sadly, he’s hamstrung by the film’s structure and, ultimately, by its direction. The film shoots for epic from minute one, demanding our awe before it’s been earned and painting with strokes so broad that it’s hard to make out such niceties as character, motivation or period detail. Snyder came to the fore with 2004’s Dawn Of The Dead remake, after learning his trade in the world of commercials, and 300, at times, looks a little like a heavy metal video. At one point, when the Spartans trudge forward to engage their enemy, it sounds like one too, a raging torrent of testosterone that is as merciless in its stabbing delivery as the Spartans themselves. In truth, the music is more than a little overcooked throughout, especially in the Gladiator-lite scenes amid the waving barley. And Snyder loves that slo-mo button, ramping the speed of the action up and down during the fight scenes, the better to move smoothly from kill to kill — a technique which, used sparingly, works beautifully, but is indulged too much during the otherwise storming middle act.

That said, Snyder does bid to temper the testosterone levels by injecting a little oestrogen, courtesy of Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey). The Spartan queen is glimpsed in Miller’s work, but Snyder pushes her further to the fore. Her heartfelt speech to the Spartan assembly, while a little public school debating society, is at least couched in believable language, spilling from the tongue of a character who has some claim on our affection. Something which cannot be said of Leonidas and his Spartans.

Nothing is more epic than the tradition of the defiant David standing up to a mammoth and all-powerful Goliath — Homer knew it; Leonidas knew it; Frank Miller knew it; and after watching 300, you will know it too. But you’re unlikely to care, for such is the nature of myth and epic that characterisation and language exist only to serve the story. For all their bravery and bluster, Spartan deaths or injuries pluck no heartstrings — we neither know these men nor care about their fate. For all Butler’s verbal anguish and warrior dexterity, he and his 300 are cartoon characters, simple archetypes of ancient epic, spitting vitriol and wielding weapons but ill-equipped to connect to those watching them on screen. The result is that the conclusion of this, one of the greatest stories ever told, is sadly fumbled.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Bloody, fanboyish retelling of an ancient battle.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Themes of underdog heroism and not bowing to corru

Even in the face of sure defeat, brave soldiers st

Over-the-top battle-scene violence, including grap

Extended love scene between Leonidas and the queen

Colorfully worded insults like: "motherless dogs,"

Parents need to know that this is no Masterpiece Theater rendition of ancient history. Like Sin City , 300 is an ultraviolent tale based on a graphic novel by Frank Miller. There's blood galore as the Spartans -- trained war machines -- defend their land against Xerxes' massive Persian army…

Positive Messages

Themes of underdog heroism and not bowing to corruption get a little lost in the blood and gore.

Positive Role Models

Even in the face of sure defeat, brave soldiers stand firm against tyrannous threats to freedom. A corrupt Spartan councilman is exposed as a traitor and brought to justice. But also some stereotyping based on Asian culture, as well as one character's physical disability.

Violence & Scariness

Over-the-top battle-scene violence, including graphic decapitations, severed limbs, mutilated bodies piled high, arrow-filled torsos, etc. Young Spartan boys are forced to furiously fight each other. The Spartan mottos are "No retreat, no surrender" and "No prisoners, no mercy."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Extended love scene between Leonidas and the queen; viewers can see her nude breasts and his butt. The adolescent Oracle writhes and sways while wearing a sheer cloth that reveals her breasts. A character unwillingly has sex to procure a politician's favor. Although no nudity is shown in that scene, the aggressor whispers menacingly: "This will not be fast. You will not enjoy this." Xerxes' lair is depicted like an orgy, with various half-dressed Persian women kissing, moaning, and having sex.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Colorfully worded insults like: "motherless dogs," "philosophers and boy-lovers," etc.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this is no Masterpiece Theater rendition of ancient history. Like Sin City , 300 is an ultraviolent tale based on a graphic novel by Frank Miller. There's blood galore as the Spartans -- trained war machines -- defend their land against Xerxes' massive Persian army. Battlefield valor and violence is glorified by the Spartans, who take no prisoners and show no mercy. Heads literally roll, blood splatters, exotic animals are sliced and speared. Many, many soldiers on either side die gruesomely. If on-screen death and war -- even one so stylized and cartoonish at times -- is too disturbing a subject matter for your kids (or you!), this bloodfest isn't a safe bet. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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• Parents say (34)
• Kids say (108)

Based on 34 parent reviews

It's soooooo heavy handed

What's the story.

Adapting Frank Miller's graphic novel 300, Snyder takes a hyperstylized visual approach to depicting the famed Battle of Thermopylae, where King Leonidas ( Gerard Butler ) and his 300 elite personal guards defied their Oracle and the odds to wage war against Xerxes' huge, unrelenting Persian army. Faced with the choice of submitting to Xerxes (Brazilian Lost regular Rodrigo Santoro, rendered nearly unrecognizable in earrings and eye makeup) or waging war, Leonidas makes the only choice a warrior-king can: fight. Leonidas and his personal detachment, led by his captain (fine character actor Vincent Regan) and Dilios (David Wenham), discover that although they're grossly outnumbered, they can funnel the enemy into the Hot Gates (the literal translation of "Thermopylae"), a narrow pass where the Spartans' special-forces skills will crush wave after wave of the Persians. And, oh, how they crush. It's impressive and disarming to see the 300 delight in the "glory" of warfare. The Spartans, so drunk on warlust that they dismember, skewer, decapitate, and spear the enemy -- whether it's human, animal, or something in between -- are brave, but also a bit mad. What the Spartans want (unlike the Arcadians, a group of fellow Greeks that joins them) is not to survive but to "die a beautiful death" in battle.

Is It Any Good?

At times engrossing and at times laughably over-the-top, 300 is entertaining as an extended war sequence. However, the film falls short of reaching the revolutionary Matrix -like status that the film's creators claim. The whole segment in Xerxes' lair, with its hedonistic sensuality, smacks of stereotypical Orientalism, not to mention some of the grossly depicted Persian soldiers and the disfigured hunchback who plays a central role.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the Spartans' upbringing and values. Why are 7-year-olds forced to fight each other -- and adults?

Xerxes offers Leonidas what sounds like a sweet deal; why does the king, facing certain death, turn it down?

Movie Details

• In theaters : March 8, 2007
• On DVD or streaming : July 31, 2007
• Cast : David Wenham , Gerard Butler , Lena Headey
• Director : Zack Snyder
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Warner Bros.
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Run time : 117 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : graphic battle sequences throughout, some sexuality and nudity.
• Last updated : February 8, 2024

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• In the ancient battle of Thermopylae, King Leonidas and 300 Spartans fight against Xerxes and his massive Persian army. They face insurmountable odds when they are betrayed by a Spartan reject.
• In the Battle of Thermopylae of 480 BC an alliance of Greek city-states fought the invading Persian army in the mountain pass of Thermopylae. Vastly outnumbered, the Greeks held back the enemy in one of the most famous last stands of history. Persian King Xerxes led a Army of well over 100,000 (Persian king Xerxes before war has about 170,000 army) men to Greece and was confronted by 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians, and 400 Thebans. Xerxes waited for 10 days for King Leonidas to surrender or withdraw but left with no options he pushed forward. After 3 days of battle all the Greeks were killed. The Spartan defeat was not the one expected, as a local shepherd, named Ephialtes, defected to the Persians and informed Xerxes that the separate path through Thermopylae, which the Persians could use to outflank the Greeks, was not as heavily guarded as they thought. — cyberian2005
• 480 B.C. When a Persian envoy arrives at the gates of Sparta, Greece, demanding submission to King Xerxes, brave King Leonidas sends word to the Persian ruler that Spartans will never give up their rights over their land. As enraged King Xerxes dispatches armed-to-the-teeth multitudes of Persian soldiers to Thermopylae, a narrow coastal passage of strategic significance, King Leonidas and just 300 of his finest royal bodyguards march against the invading army, refusing to bow to the all-powerful enemy. And although the Spartans were vastly outnumbered, King Leonidas' men crushed wave after wave of superior Persian forces--a fierce, winner-take-all confrontation that would go down in the annals of history as the legendary Battle of Thermopylae. — Nick Riganas
• In 480 BC, the Persian king Xerxes sends his massive army to conquer Greece. The Greek city of Sparta houses its finest warriors, and 300 of these soldiers are chosen to meet the Persians at Thermopylae, engaging the soldiers in a narrow canyon where they cannot take full advantage of their numbers. The battle is a suicide mission, meant to buy time for the rest of the Greek forces to prepare for the invasion. However, that doesn't stop the Spartans from throwing their hearts into the fray, determined to take as many Persians as possible with them. — rmlohner
• Spartan customs are harsh. The Spartans inspect each infant born to ensure it is whole - if it is deformed, the baby is abandoned to die. They raise their boys in the school of hard knocks, the agoge - in combat training, a small boy's loss of his weapon earns a bloody lip from the hand of his own father. At age 7, each young boy is torn from his mother and makes his own way in the wilderness, to return a man. Even the King endures this rite of passage. At age 15, young King-to-be Leonidas ( Tyler Neitzel ) lures a wolf into a narrow passage so that he can kill it. He returns home to be crowned King. Years later, messengers visit King Leonidas ( Gerard Butler ) requesting Sparta's submission to King Xerxes ( Rodrigo Santoro ). Insulted by their attitude, King Leonidas kicks the messengers into a well. Acknowledging the threat of Xerxes's invasion force, he visits the Ephors (priests) to obtain their favour before sending the Spartan army in battle. He proposes to repel the numerically superior enemy by using the terrain of the Hot Gates of Thermopylae, funneling the Persians into a narrow pass between the rocks and the sea, where their immense numbers will "count for nothing." The Ephors, wary of the plan, consult the Oracle ( Kelly Craig ). In her drugged trance she decrees that Sparta must not go to war, lest they interrupt the sacred Carneian festival. Leonidas departs in anger, and the priests receive their bribe of Xerxes' gold from the Spartan traitor, Theron ( Dominic West ), for their negative response. Leonidas is reluctant to defy the corrupt clergy outright, but his wife ( Lena Headey ) encourages him to think outside the box. Leonidas elects to take 300 of his best soldiers as his "bodyguard" on a leisurely walk to the strategic Hot Gates location. His wife says goodbye, telling him to come back "with his shield or on it", and gives him a necklace. On the road they meet some allies, who are shocked that the Spartans are sending such a small force. Leonidas asks the professions of the allied army, who are craftsmen and artisans. He points out that he has brought more soldiers than they. Joined by Arcadians and other Greeks, they arrive at Thermopylae. In sight of the approaching Persian army, they construct a wall to contain the Persians' advance. Strong storms destroy some of Xerxes fleet, but it is only a small percentage of the massive army they will face. A horribly disfigured man, Ephialtes ( Andrew Tiernan ), comes to see Leonidas to warn him of a disused goat path at the rear of his position. Ephialtes claims that his parents fled Sparta at his birth to save his life. He hopes to redeem them by fighting for Leonidas. Leonidas explains that each Spartan warrior is a key part of the phalanx, and asks Ephialtes to show that he can lift his shield high enough to properly defend his fellow warriors. When it becomes evident that he cannot, Leonidas gently tells him to care for the fallen instead. Ephialtes' fondest hopes are crushed. A Persian emissary arrives, and finds that the corpses of the previous scouting party now make up part of the large rock wall. The Persian states that their arrows will blot out the sun, and the Spartans agree they will simply fight in the shade. The emissary's party is killed. Prior to the battle the Persians demand that the Spartans drop their arms and surrender. Leonidas refuses and challenges the Persians to come and take their weapons from them. With their tightly-knit phalanx formation, the Spartans funnel the Persians into the narrow terrain, repeatedly rebuffing them and inflicting heavy casualties. Xerxes, impressed with Spartan fighting skill, personally approaches Leonidas to persuade him to surrender. He promises Leonidas wealth and power in exchange for his loyalty. Leonidas declines, promising instead to make the "God King" bleed, and turns to rejoin his army. Dismayed at the refusal, Xerxes sends his masked personal guard, "The Immortals", which name the Spartans also prove false. The battles continue, with the Spartans prevailing over soldiers and animals drawn from the vast reaches of the Persian empire: from Mongolian barbarians and Eastern chemists to African rhinoceroses and Indian war elephants. However, some of the brave Spartan warriors are killed, and it becomes clear that more will follow. Ephialtes goes to Xerxes, and agrees to show the goat path to the Persians in exchange for a uniform, along with promises of women and wealth. Xerxes will grant Ephialtes his wish if he will kneel before the god king. Back in Sparta, Queen Gorgo has been trying to convince the council to send help to Leonidas. A friendly councilman arranges for her to speak, but explains that she will need Theron on her side. Theron agrees to help her if she will sleep with him - so she does. At the Hot Gates, the Spartans learn they have been betrayed, and know their fight is doomed. The Arcadians retreat in the face of certain death. The Spartans refuse to follow. Leonidas orders a reluctant Dilios to return to Sparta and tell of their inevitable deaths. In Sparta, Queen Gorgo makes her appeal to the council. Instead of supporting her as promised, Theron betrays her, accusing her of adultery. Enraged, Gorgo snatches a sword and stabs Theron, rupturing a bag of gold hidden in his robe. As the coins stamped with Persian markings spill onto the ground, the Council realizes Theron's treachery and agree to unite against Persia. At the Hot Gates, as the Persians surround the Spartans, who have created a dome out of their shields. Leonidas stands along in front of the dome. Xerxes's general demands their surrender, declaring that Leonidas may keep his title as King of Sparta and become Warlord of all Greece, answerable only to Xerxes. Ephialtes urges this as well, to which Leonidas remarks, "May you live forever," an insult from a culture valuing death and valor in battle. Leonidas drops his shield and removes his helmet, seemingly bowing in submission. Stelios then bursts out of the dome and leaps over his king and kills the general. A furious Xerxes orders his troops to attack. As Persian archers shoot the remaining Spartans, Leonidas rises and hurls his spear at Xerxes, ripping open his cheek, thus making "the God-King bleed." Xerxes, visibly shaken by this reminder of his own mortality, watches as the remaining Spartans perish beneath the combined might of his army. Leonidas himself marks his final moments by telling his wife aloud that he loves her. A rain of arrows falls upon him and the screen goes black. Back in Sparta, Dilios gives the necklace to Queen Gorgo and tells her of her husband's fate. Concluding his tale before an audience of attentive Spartans, Dilios declares that the 120,000-strong Persian army that narrowly defeated 300 Spartans now faces 10,000 Spartans commanding 30,000 Greeks. Praising Leonidas's sacrifice, Dilios leads the assembled Greek army into a fierce charge against the Persian army, igniting the Battle of Plataea.

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300 (2006) Movie Review: Dazzling, Brainless Epic

• 300 (2006) movie review summary: In his best role to date, Gerard Butler stands out in Zack Snyder’s video-game-like recreation of the lopsided 5th-century B.C.E. war between the Spartan and Persian armies.

300 (2006) movie review: Starring Gerard Butler, Zack Snyder’s historical war ‘epic’ is like dazzling video game playing itself

Director Zack Snyder’s 300 may not be the most sophisticated war epic to hit the big screen, but with its series of mesmerizing tableaux and extreme graphic violence the film unquestionably succeeds in dazzling its audience.

In other words: Watching 300 is like watching a video game that plays itself.

State-of-the-art CGI

Set in 480 B.C.E., 300 recounts the fate of King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) of Sparta, as he leads three hundred of his men to battle the superior Persian army of Xerxes the Great (Rodrigo Santoro). The battle is fought at Thermopylae, where Leonidas and his outnumbered soldiers struggle to block the only route through which the enemy could pass.

Setting new standards in the field of computer-generated effects, Zack Snyder (who co-wrote the screenplay with Kurt Johnstad and Michael B. Gordon), cinematographer Larry Fong, editor William Hoy, and the movie’s visual effects team used blue screen technique – through which actors are filmed in front of a blue screen before the addition of CGI-created backgrounds – to assemble glorious, nail-biting battle scenes. As a plus, the omnipresence of sepia mixed with blue and red provides the war epic with the appropriately gloomy mood.

Those who enjoyed Snyder’s 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead already know that he’s a dab hand at fast-paced filmmaking. But this time, Snyder combines his energetic style with a substantial number of spectacular slow-motion sequences depicting every detail of the battle’s ferocious brutality.

In fact, 300 is packed with decapitations and severed body parts, but considering that the film is based on a graphic novel co-written by Frank Miller (with Lynn Varley) its degree of violence should not surprise anyone.

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Stand-out Gerard Butler

Apart from the battle sequences, however, 300 has little else to offer.

A subplot – involving Leonidas’ wife, Goro (Lena Headey), fighting against political discrimination – falls flat, while the focus on the Spartans’ refusal to surrender doesn’t spark any significant interest.

On the other hand, Gerard Butler stands out as the King of Sparta – the Scottish actor’s best role yet. Butler fully conveys Leonidas’ fierceness and sacrificial beliefs even though the screenwriters failed to supply him with coherent lines.

‘This is where we look for the game controller!’

In fact, sentences like “Madness? This is Sparta” or “This is where we fight! This is where we die!” made this reviewer look for a game controller so as to skip the dialogue bits.

Although 300 lacks the storytelling flow of Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez’s adaptation of Miller’s Sin City , Zack Snyder’s epic works just fine as a brainless blockbuster. Indeed, the visuals alone are worth a trip to the theatre.

300 (2006) movie cast & crew Director: Zack Snyder. Screenplay: Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad, and Michael B. Gordon. Cast: Gerard Butler. Lena Headey. Dominic West. David Wenham. Vincent Regan. Michael Fassbender . Tom Wisdom. Rodrigo Santoro. Andrew Pleavin. Andrew Tiernan. Giovani Cimmino. Stephen McHattie.

“ 300 (2006) Movie Review: Dazzling, Brainless Epic” review text © Franck Tabouring; excerpt, image captions, bullet point introduction, and notes © Alt Film Guide.

Gerard Butler 300 (2006) image: Warner Bros.

“ 300 (2006) Movie Review: Dazzling, Brainless Epic” last updated in April 2024.

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300 is without question one of the poorest films I have ever seen. And I’ve seen lots of movies. I sat, mesmerized, waiting in vain for it to improve. Poor narration, terrible dialog and wooden acting. I felt slightly embarrassed to be watching it. One or two ‘scenes’ are visually clever, but I will never waste my time watching this movie again. When compared to the ‘Illusionist’, 300 seems to have been made by teenagers. Very poor movie indeed. Save your money. Don’t say you were not warned.

I didn’t know how to describe 300 to my friends who wanted to see it (I saw an advanced screening).

“Watching 300 is like watching a video game that plays itself.”

I couldn’t have said that better myself.

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Movie Review: 300 (2007)

• General Disdain
• Movie Reviews
• 5 responses
• --> March 14, 2007

Where do I begin? After all the initial movie reviews and hype surrounding the opening of 300 what else is there to say?

Let me begin, by saying the movie definitely lives up to the fervor surrounding it. You want action? You got it. You want crazy, vivid battle scenes? You got it. You want ripped, hot and sexy actors (for the men-who-like-men and ladies) and actresses (for the ladies-who-like-ladies and men)? You got it. Basically, everything you could want it all rolled up and packaged nicely into a two hour film.

As you know, or will know now, 300 is movie adaptation of a graphic novel by none other than Frank Miller. The novel is loosely based on the real Battle of Thermopylae and inspired by the movie “The 300 Spartans.” It chronicles the futile stand of King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and 300 Spartan warriors against the hordes of Persia led by Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro). This stand ultimately wins the war as it provided the time for the Greek city-states to assemble their armies and navies and repel the advancing Persians. But enough about history — lets talk about the movie.

Visually, the movie is shot in a similar fashion as “ Sin City ” (another Frank Miller adaptation). The lighting is muted, scenery is glossy and spectacular and intense detail is spotlighted on areas the director wants your eyes to travel. It is evident 300 has spent countless hours being edited and altered on a Macintosh to ensure the perfect dramatic effect has been placed at exacting moments and proper angles. I can’t see a single scene that doesn’t appear to be CGI shaped in some fashion — even if it didn’t necessarily need it.

Action-wise, this movie is filled to the brim. Aside from ten to twenty minutes worth of backdrop in Sparta involving Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) and the council, everything else is violence. I’ve seen it said elsewhere (or at least I think I have), but without a doubt, a tightly choreographed dance of death and dismemberment await all those that go to see this. The scenes are extravagant and overloaded. Yet, through it all, the blood and gore is presented in an almost comic fashion. The blood looks like paint droplets and its’ spray and splatter seems to move in unison with the mayhem all about.

The characters, for the most part, are interchangeable. After all, Sparta men are warriors and there is little to discern one from another. It is rather disconcerting to see that everyone within the city are absolutely fantastic to look at. Every man is pumped up with chiseled features. The women are all slim and sleek with wonderfully long legs. If only I was born a Spartan (of course I would have been cast aside as all unworthy children were)! As expected, there isn’t much dialogue, yet the few words spoken by Leonidas are captivating and insightful — hell, he’s trying to keep 300 men motivated and ready to battle 100,000 foes. He’d better have something good to say!

For the faint of heart and those who cannot escape reality, 300 is not the movie for you. Every scene is over-the-top and exaggerated and its done purely for visual effect. The speeches about Sparta are beyond blusterous. And, I’m no history major, but I’m guessing there is very little in the way of historical fact here. But it all works. It all works very good. Kudos to Zack Snyder, the director, for presenting us with a well painted portrait.

Tagged: graphic novel adaptation , Greece , king

I'm an old, miserable fart set in his ways. Some of the things that bring a smile to my face are (in no particular order): Teenage back acne, the rain on my face, long walks on the beach and redneck women named Francis. Oh yeah, I like to watch and criticize movies.

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'Movie Review: 300 (2007)' have 5 comments

March 16, 2007 @ 1:56 pm Ray

I found the movie to be boisterous and full of itself. This was just an exercise in glorifying gore and decapitations.

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March 17, 2007 @ 10:06 am General Disdain

I agree on both points. Doesn’t mean the movie wasn’t a successful endeavor though, now does it?

March 18, 2007 @ 7:28 pm Corpus Cannabis

Zack Snyder’s 300 begins with thunder, blood-red lettering followed by the overblown 300 slices, dices and decimates into music video styled computer generated monster mash with no sign of intelligent life sign. This adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel is no where close to what Sin City was.

One can discern what is happening on the screen, though it doesn’t make much sense except as some grand visual dramatisation of kill fantasy. Everything is phony in this movie, memorable sights abound, arrows soaring in the sky, Persians plummeting off a cliff and some fantastic visual display of dead villagers festooned to a tree.

It’s sad after all the hype, 300 is humor-less and so utterly over the top with no flavor any realism. I give 300 4 piles of dog poop.

November 26, 2007 @ 8:11 am Atomic Popcorn

I loved this movie, well done adaptation.

March 24, 2010 @ 10:03 pm guchi

If you can’t enjoy a movie like this you’re quite possibly full of yourself or belong in a PG rated theatre.

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‘Megalopolis’ First Look: Francis Ford Coppola Says ‘I Must’ve Rewritten It 300 Times’ Before Self-Financing the $120 Million ‘Roman Epic’

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Digital News Director

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Francis Ford Coppola revealed in a preview of “ Megalopolis ” in Vanity Fair that he rewrote the script around 300 times before self-financing the passion project for $120 million by selling part of his winery estate in Northern California. The epic is set to world premiere in competition at the Cannes FIlm Festival in May. A first look photo from “Megalopolis” has debuted featuring Adam Driver and Nathalie Emmanuel in their leading roles.

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“I wasn’t really working on this screenplay for 40 years as I often see written, but rather I was collecting notes and clippings for a scrapbook of things I found interesting for some future screenplay, or examples of political cartoons or different historical subjects,” Coppola told Vanity Fair about the project’s development. “Ultimately, after a lot of time, I settled on the idea of a Roman epic. And then later, a Roman epic set in modern America, so I really only began writing this script, on and off, in the last dozen years or so. Also, as I have made many films of many different subjects and in many different styles, I hoped for a project later in life when I might better understand  what  my personal style was.”

“Megalopolis”  wrapped production last year  and, on March 28, screened for the first time before a star-studded guest list of studio heads, distributors and buyers at the Universal CityWalk IMAX Theater in Los Angeles.

Last September, Coppola elaborated on  how Rome inspired “Megalopolis,”  writing on Instagram, “How often do I think of Ancient Rome? Quite a lot, as the Roman Republic served as the example for my country America and its institutions, and was the inspiration for my upcoming film ‘Megalopolis.’”

Coppola continued, “My fascination with the Roman Republic is based on the struggle between the political parties during which the interest of the Republic yielded to the ambitions of a few powerful men who espoused the aims of political parties to establish their own fortunes and authority by relying upon armed forces to achieve those ends, dealing the final blow to a constitution already tottering to its fall.”

“Megalopolis” will be seeking distribution out of Cannes. Variety recently reported the film was nearing a deal in France with Le Pacte.

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Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes takes the series in a different direction

Civilisation has crumbled, culture has been lost, and humans have been reduced to feral, slow-witted creatures who can no longer form intelligible words. What better place to film it all than Australia?

Shot at Disney Studios in Sydney and on location in the wilds of New South Wales, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a sequel to the 2011–2017 simian trilogy, set many generations after the reign of the legendary chimpan-A, Caesar (Andy Serkis, taking a well-deserved break from this latest instalment).

Earth is now overrun with apes who've formed themselves into regional clans. Primitive villages — not unlike those of the original 1968 movie — have sprung up across the land. The ruins of human cities, meanwhile, have been largely reclaimed by nature, their history and technology now a distant memory to all but the oldest apes — keepers of a secret knowledge that could threaten the newly dominant species.

What humans remain have been driven into hiding, mute scavengers left to scrape by in the shadows. The apes call them — in a neat, poetic touch — "the echo."

It's not exactly a utopia. The movie's new chimp hero, Noa (Owen Teague), is spurred into action when his peaceful village is burned to the ground by a band of gorilla-led marauders, who murder his father and take the rest of his family captive.

Dressed in spooky masks and wielding cattle-prods, these guys don't monkey around: they're foot soldiers of the fearsome Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand), a power-hungry chimpanzee hell-bent on consolidating the clans, ruling the planet and exterminating the remaining traces of humankind.

So begins a quest for revenge, with Noa roaming the forests and teaming up with the wise orangutan Raka (Peter Macon, giving the film's warmest, funniest performance), an ancient keeper of lore who yearns for peace between humans and apes — and bemoans the murders done in Caesar's name.

Also tagging along is a stray human girl (Freya Allan, of TV's The Witcher), who appears to be thoroughly feral — or at least smells as such, much to Noa and Raka's amusing displeasure.

"We shall call her Nova," says Raka. "We call them all Nova. I do not know why."

It's one of the few moments of genuine levity in this grim, rather earnest movie — spontaneity being hard to come by in a $165-million blockbuster whose motion-capture precision means scenes are mapped out months in advance of the shoot. (As always, Weta FX's mo-cap work here is exquisite, though the absence of Serkis — and his robust, energising performance — is a hole the new movie struggles to fill.)

Despite some pretty anonymous direction by Wes Ball (The Maze Runner trilogy), Kingdom does rouse itself in its gladiatorial final third, when our heroes are captured and delivered to the stronghold of Proximus — a shipwreck in which the great ape has enslaved his kin in a desperate bit to unlock a hidden fortress of human technology. (William H. Macy is also there, for some reason, as a human who's sold his services to the apes; I hope he had a nice holiday.)

His methods might be lousy, but you can't exactly fault Proximus on his ambitions, given the memory of humanity's cruelty. What they eventually uncover won't do too much to sway his conviction.

Still, these revelations are snoozers for a series that began with pop cinema's greatest-ever twist ending, one whose tangled mythology forced its filmmakers into ever-greater quantum leaps of loopy invention: blowing up the planet; sending ape-astronauts back through time; having humanity accelerate its own demise by enslaving the descendants of those time travellers.

Those early films also pulled no punches in painting mankind as the monsters — and made sure they got what the deserved, in often hilariously bleak ways.

By comparison, this newer series has crawled along a more familiar, linear trajectory — four movies in and they've inched to a place the audience is already many steps ahead of — while the original films' brutal analogies for man's cruelty have been replaced by a more standard hero's journey.

Realism, too, has robbed the series of its strange delight; there's something infinitely more pleasurable about seeing hammy actors in ape costumes — it somehow enhanced the sense of play, of the uncanny.

One of the issues seems to be that Kingdom, like its predecessors, can't seem to let go of its sympathy for humanity — despite all the evidence of its hubris — resulting in yet another movie that tries to play both sides, to cultivate a hope for co-existence that feels disingenuous to the series.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes has its moments, but its insistence on playing things down the middle feels like a betrayal of the series' bitter, satirical origins.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is showing in cinemas now.

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Victoria Beckham Reveals Phoebe Dynevor's 2024 Met Gala Gown Featured More Than 300 Hand-Sewn Lace Flowers

Beckham designed the 'Bridgerton' actress' intricate pink lace dress she wore to the annual fashion event

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic; Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty 

A lot of work went into Phoebe Dynevor 's intricate Met Gala look.

On Monday, May 6, Dynevor, 29, walked the famous steps at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in a custom Victoria Beckham dress, making her the first person to attend the annual fashion event in a design by the 50-year-old.

This year's theme was "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion," and Beckham definitely managed to capture that with the Bridgerton actress' stunning pink lace gown featuring hand-cut flowers and a long train.

The Spice Girls star revealed more about creating the look on Instagram , sharing several photos of Dynevor, 29, posing for photographers. 

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"In a nod to this year’s ‘Sleeping Beauties’ theme, the ethereal silhouette was hand-crafted from archival lace, and embellished with over 300 lace appliqué flowers, hand-cut and hand-sewn onto a tulle base," Beckham captioned the post, adding the hashtag, "#VBMetGala."

She also shared a clip and some more snaps of Dynevor attending the star-studded event on her Instagram Stories .

This year's dress code was "The Garden of Time," inspired by a short story by JG Ballard. “It’s like something out of a fairytale,” Dynevor told Vogue of the dress. “It has this beautiful train with flowers going all the way up it … It’s very ethereal.” 

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“I’m very excited to be wearing color! It’s definitely new for me,” she added.

“10-year-old me could never have seen this coming,” Dynevor, whose first ever concert was the Spice Girls, told the outlet ahead of wearing the VB gown.

While speaking to Vogue , Beckham shared, “We decided to use vintage lace from our archives, as there was something quite romantic about reviving it and bringing it back to life — much like a sleeping beauty."

“[Phoebe is] such a beautiful, talented young woman and I really wanted to design the gown with her in mind — to be almost like an extension of her. We even hand-dyed the flowers to match her skin,” she continued.

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Never miss a story — sign up for  PEOPLE's free daily newsletter  to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Dynevor made her Met Gala debut back in 2022 wearing a black lace Louis Vuitton gown, with the star telling Vogue she wasn't as nervous to be attending fashion's biggest night this time around.

“The funny thing about going for the first time is you just have no idea what to expect,” Dynevor told the outlet. “There’s so much going on, and you’re seeing all these [famous] people walking in and wanting to stare at them instead."

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