Has there ever been such a gleefully testosterone fueled action fest as 300 before? Certainly not in the CBM sub-genre. To say the movie is all style over substance is an understatement, ah but what style!
Based on the graphic Novel by Frank Miller, Zack Snyder adapts the fictionalized story of the Battle of Thermopylae, in which 300 Spartan warriors took a final stand against a massively superior force of invading Persians. Our "hero" is the Spartan king Leonidas(Gerard Butler), and he gathers his men(Michael Fassbender and David Wenham among them) against the wishes of his Spartan politicians, to go slice the bejaysus out of the million or so Persians led by the "God King" Xerxes(Rodrigo Santoro). He leaves behind his wife Giorgo(Lena Headey), and she attempts to rally support among the council.
There isn't a lot more to it. In fairness to Miller/Snyder, even though we are obviously supposed to root for the Spartans, they are not shown in too sympathetic a light. In fact they are shown to be a bit of a pack of cruel bastards! So right off the bat the usual staple of ultimate good vs ultimate evil is done away with. It's basically just a case of rooting for the underdogs. Aside from Leonidas(and even he is not developed nearly enough), we don't really get to know any of the others or care about whatever grizzly fate awaits them. But as a single fighting force, the Spartans are definitely the closest thing to an emotional core the movie has. You might think it would be Queen Gorgo and Leonidas, and towards the end I guess that's the case but again, nowhere near enough attention is payed to their relationship. Now, ask yourself this question. In a film about men slicing the shit out of each other for an hour and half does any of that stuff matter? Well, imo it all depends. If the performances are solid, the script not too eye rolling and the visuals/action of a high enough standard then I'll go along for the ride. And in this case, it mattered to me not a bit!
This movie may not be any deeper than a puddle but it doesn't take anything away from the sheer spectacle of it. Snyder directs with his usual vigor, throwing ferocious slow mo action scenes at us left right and center. Visually he employs blue screen backgrounds for practically every shot of the movie(only one scene was filmed in a real environment) but it works very well. The performances are as good as they need to be. Butler certainly stands out(but he was alway going to). His growls of "This Is Sparta" and "Tonight We Dine In Hell" have been parodied endlessly since, but the truth is that they stay just the right side of cheesy to be very effective in the movie. And while nobody else is bad, they don't exactly set the screen on fire either. But as I said, it really doesn't matter. Frank Miller wrote a story about buff men decapitating each other and Zack Snyder filmed it, and filmed it well. If that doesn't float your boat that's fine, but criticizing 300 for not being something that it never set out to be in the first place is pointless. I'm not even going to get into the historical inaccuracy or the accusations or racism. Zack Snyder went on to make the vastly superior Watchmen, and the vastly inferior Sucker Punch. What awaits us when he unleashes his take on The Man Of Steel? Hopefully a film that is sufficiently different to all of them. One thing is for sure, it will be great to look at!