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Haha. This is one of those movies that never should have happened, atleast according to common sense. The absurdity of 300 is unbelievable. 300 is so crazy and surreal that it's actually good. Here's a movie that acts like it would be serious, but is filled with things that are not possible in any manner. It's awesome to see something like this. Zack Snyder really went all out here when it comes to directorial feats. He is entirely responsible for the fact that this movie is good at all. The visual style that he follows through the entire movie is this weird bronze-like tone, which by all means looks marvellous. Overall, when it comes to visuality, 300 is one of the best movies ever made. I mean any movie that can make half-naked men in thongs look good and cool deserves that right. The fight scenes are definately the best thing in the whole film, and they do work very well. Simply put, they're entertaining to watch. There's nothing more to it. You just enjoy them. The story is somewhat mudane, it's a rather clichéd tale of courage and freedom and such things, but we've heard it all before anyhow. It however is a great excuse to give us Gerald Butler screaming catchy one-liners at the top of his lungs. The man does indeed have a good voice. Most people have complained greatly about the sideplot about Leonidas's wife, calling it too boring. It is boring, yes. But it's also extremely necessary for the movie. Without it, the movie would either be very short, or very boring. It's like a some comedy movies; you hear a joke once, and you laugh your ass off. You hear it again, you laugh again. You hear it the third time, you laught yet again. But if you hear it for over five times, it starts to get dull. Hear if over ten times, it's boring. Hear it over twenty times, you never want to hear it again. But if you insert a few other jokes in between the same joke, you'll laugh at it often. It's the same thing with the action scenes of 300. They would definately get somewhat boring without the sideplot supporting them. With the sideplot you actually have anticipation towards the next scene, until you really just can't wait for it to show up.
All the performances in 300 do their job adequately. Many have complained over Dominic West as the storyteller. I thought he did a good job, but when he was on-screen I really didn't buy it. Butler, as I mentioned earlier, has a powerful voice and he makes it show. I wish he didn't shout all the time, but I guess you can't have everything you want. The rest of the nameless male strippers do well, as does the wife of Leonidas, who's performance contains a nice amount of passion towards what she's doing. Santoro does an extremely odd job as the transvestite godking leader of the persians. I don't know what to say about the guy, except that he was one tall motherfucker. Tyler Bates composed the score for 300, and he should definately be considered a noteworthy composer after this. 300 sounds amazing on occasion, but it sounds too good. You see, a good movie score doesn't take away your attention from the movie itself, it enchances it instead. Bates does steal a few scenes here, as unfortunate as it may be. For the majority of the flick, his work is still good.
300 is a pure entertainment movie. Don't try to search, or don't hope, for any deeper meanings from it, and you won't be dissapointed by the astonishing action scenes.
7/10
