Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Movie Review - 300

I went to see the movie 300 on Saturday, and have to say I was pretty impressed with it. I don't see a lot of movies in the theater, but I had to make the effort for this one after reading several enthusiastic blogger reviews. Hollywood doesn't make many movies with themes such as duty, freedom, honor, and personal sacrifice much any more, but the big box office numbers may, and hopefully will, make them rethink that.

It is a pretty serious film about a pretty serious subject, and has enough violence that it could turn some off, but I found the violence to be of the more stylized comic book variety than a lot of the stuff you see in slasher/horror pictures. I won't ruin the plot for those that haven't seen it, but I found it was both a strong story, well acted, and was quite visually appealing as well, although others have criticized the CGI used quite a bit for the backdrops. It did a pretty good job of sticking to the history of the actual event, although I was disappointed that the film made no mention at all of the naval battle off the Greek coast at Artemesium, led the the Athenian leader Themosicles. The Greek navy prevented the Persians from landing troops behind the the Greek position on land, allowing the blocking force at the pass to hold off the entire Persian army.

All told, I would say it is the best war movie I have seen since The Great Raid. Grade: A.

1 comment:

Reel Fanatic said...

300 was indeed a real accomplishment, and a new standard by which to judge comic book/graphic novel adaptations .. I can't wait now to see that Zack Snyder will do with Watchmen