Film: 300
Cast: Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Dominic West
Director: Zack Snyder
I have been accused of being low on IQ, thin on values and wide around the waist, but never of being high on testosterone. So when the trailers of 300 showed sculpted bodies, incessant screaming and oodles of ketchup splattered all over, I couldn’t help but sigh. Boy, was I in for a surprise.
Based on cult graphic novelist Frank Miller’s famous work, 300 is a retelling of the epic Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC when 300 Spartans (or so the legend goes) fought heroically against a Persian army numbering a million (or so the legend goes). King Leonidas (Butler) takes 300 of his finest soldiers and meets the Persians at a narrow mountain pass where their vastness doesn’t count for much. What follows is as bloody and brutal a battle as can be imagined.
Despite being a blood and gore epic with loads of special effects, 300 succeeds mainly because of its storytelling. It recounts a myth with a passion that comes across. Forget historical inaccuracies or modern-day metaphors, this is a good versus evil tale told the old-fashioned way.
Director Zach Snyder gets the ball rolling with the casting. There are no marquee names, but good actors that will make you remember their characters, not themselves. The visual effects are spectacular. The texture is out of the ordinary, but doesn’t stick out. The action is breathtaking and fluid.
As a comic book in motion, 300 is the best you can get. It does not pretend to be anything else and that is its strength. Even the scenes of limbs being cut off does not make you sick because of the picture-book feel. 300 is an experience that is exhilarating and eye popping. Judge it for what it is and you won’t be disappointed. By Sparta, you won’t be!
Cast: Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Dominic West
Director: Zack Snyder
I have been accused of being low on IQ, thin on values and wide around the waist, but never of being high on testosterone. So when the trailers of 300 showed sculpted bodies, incessant screaming and oodles of ketchup splattered all over, I couldn’t help but sigh. Boy, was I in for a surprise.
Based on cult graphic novelist Frank Miller’s famous work, 300 is a retelling of the epic Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC when 300 Spartans (or so the legend goes) fought heroically against a Persian army numbering a million (or so the legend goes). King Leonidas (Butler) takes 300 of his finest soldiers and meets the Persians at a narrow mountain pass where their vastness doesn’t count for much. What follows is as bloody and brutal a battle as can be imagined.
Despite being a blood and gore epic with loads of special effects, 300 succeeds mainly because of its storytelling. It recounts a myth with a passion that comes across. Forget historical inaccuracies or modern-day metaphors, this is a good versus evil tale told the old-fashioned way.
Director Zach Snyder gets the ball rolling with the casting. There are no marquee names, but good actors that will make you remember their characters, not themselves. The visual effects are spectacular. The texture is out of the ordinary, but doesn’t stick out. The action is breathtaking and fluid.
As a comic book in motion, 300 is the best you can get. It does not pretend to be anything else and that is its strength. Even the scenes of limbs being cut off does not make you sick because of the picture-book feel. 300 is an experience that is exhilarating and eye popping. Judge it for what it is and you won’t be disappointed. By Sparta, you won’t be!
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