Directed by:
Zack SnyderCinematography:
Larry FongComposer:
Tyler BatesCast:
Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, David Wenham, Dominic West, Vincent Regan, Rodrigo Santoro, Andrew Tiernan, Isabelle Champeau, Michael Fassbender, Peter Mensah (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
The epic graphic novel by Frank Miller (Sin City) assaults the screen with the blood, thunder and awe of its ferocious visual style faithfully recreated in an intense blend of live-action and CGI animation. Retelling the ancient Battle of Thermopylae, it depicts the titanic clash in which King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and 300 Spartans fought to the death against Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his massive Persian army. Experience history at swordpoint. And moviemaking with a cutting edge. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Videos (3)
Reviews (16)
I would like to paraphrase a sentence uttered in the film itself: "My eyes saw a grotesque spectacle summoned from the darkest corners of Miller's strange soul." The rape of history under the guise of a comic adaptation (under which everything is tolerated nowadays, perhaps even if someone made Němcová's Grandmother a dominatrix in a S&M parlour), the fanatically stubborn (though undeniably charismatic) Leonidas, who reminded me of another fanatic, Hoferik from Signum Laudis, so I certainly wouldn't want him as a king, and the slow-motion shots in the second half with their increasing frequency bored me to death. If, given the high box office returns, this empty and narcissistic affair will set the course for the future of the film industry, then we have no choice but to shout "Gott mit uns!" I'm not sure if sentences like "...I felt like smashing someone's face in after the movie was over..." is the right emotion to take away from a film, but I have no doubt that for angry young teens, this will be the best movie of their short lives so far :)
()
The missing color of the palette of historical movie varieties has been put in its place. Thanks to Frank Miller’s imagination we can see the reflection of times so distant for us that we know about them only from myths. But it would be incorrect to call 300 a historical movie. It really would. It is more of an attempt at balancing a fantasy and a story based on true events. This was exactly what Snyder realized and he was able to capture that balance that thanks to the technology he used. With a huge support of the cast, mainly the flawless Gerard Butler and the excellent to gigantic Rodrigo Santoro. I was so looking forward to it and I wasn’t disappointed one bit. Tell them in Lacedaemon, passerby: carrying out their orders, here we lie. I’ll never forget how I felt when leaving the movie theater after seeing 300.
()
Frank Miller has always worked better on paper (and even that hasn't been great as of a certain point). 300 may not be a total loss, but the ravages of time have gnawed away at it after only a decade. On the other hand, we can thank this phenomenon for the creation of the competing Spartacus series, which is simply much better in many ways. The comic book of the same name is legendary, but unfortunately, a sequel was released 20 years later.
()
Oops. This is no mega epic. 300 is a modest experiment based on a ten-page screenplay and with nice blue-screen backgrounds. The dialogue pretends to be so serious and cool that it’s laughable. The story recycles what we’ve already been told by Braveheart and Gladiator, only shortened and focusing exclusively on the visual aspect. It’s nice to look at and the battle scenes are well done, but everything else is bland. If not for the slow-motion shots, 300 would barely run 60 minutes. It’s fine for what it is, but I hope it doesn’t herald the start of a new film subgenre.
()
Both an excellent start and conclusion and... And in the meantime, there is only filler, which is not boring only thanks to the charismatic Butler and the artistic component, which eventually becomes too much. It isn’t completely fair to reproach 300 for its unmistakable macho and even fascist façade, but to criticize its boring action scenes is. The middle part is mostly the clash between the brave Spartans and Persian masses, but the action itself somehow lacks juice. Which is a big problem with this type of movie. Paradoxically, the biggest plus doesn’t come until the stylized final credits.
()
Gallery (109)
Photo © Warner Bros.
![300 - Photos](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w663/files/images/film/photos/000/215/215069_6324f0.jpg)
Ads