The last thing the Internet needs is another fanboy fawning over the greatness that is 300, so I'll keep this short. I originally saw it in the theater and instantly fell in love with it. I don't rewatch a lot of movies these days, so it's saying something when I revisited it on DVD; and I'm sure once my son is old enough to watch it, I'll see it many more times, as it'll be something I'll be excited to show him.

Director Zach Snyder has created something fully unique, that I expect will be copied to death in the coming years. It's an absolutely gorgeous film, with a true artists eye; each frame flips by with near perfection, the entire film looks like it's been painted by a master artist. The over-stylized violence is beautifully realized; strong camera angles, beautiful sepia-tone photography shocked with bright red splashes of blood, edited in very tight and fun fashion. It's about as close to watching a comic book as you can get. I don't need to go on, and honestly I'm having a hard time expressing my feelings about this almost perfect film. It might have lost some of it's power, through all the mocking it's received in the last year; but it'll be remembered long after those jokes die.

I'm really looking forward to Snyder's next film Watchmen, it's one of the few graphic novels I've read in my life and I believe that Snyder is the perfect filmmaker to capture this already greatly realized world. I had no idea who he was before his first film, the remake Dawn of the Dead, which I originally thought it was a bad idea; but after seeing Snyder's re-imagining of this zombie classic, it quickly became my 2nd favorite zombie film (after Return of the Living Dead), and made me realize I had another director to watch for. With 300, he more than proved that worth, and I greatly hope that he can keep it up with Watchmen and beyond.

--Written by Ross Williams--

--From: What I Watched Last Night (http://whatiwatchedlastnight.blogspot.com)--

300 is a digitally enhanced sword and sandals semi-epic that lives up to almost all of the buzz generated for it on behave of Warner Brothers’ extremely aggressive advertisement campaign. If this film had been made in the “traditional” fashion i.e. real sets and shot on location, it may have cost 200 million dollars. The highly entertaining and authentic HBO television show Rome was made in such a fashion with its first 24-episode season costing $100 million. This high price tag, the most in HBO history, was the cause of its early demise before its second season began to air. A similar fate might have befallen 300 but with innovation and the use of blue (and green) screens, its production cost, which does not include how much it cost to advertise the film, was kept at a mere $65 million.

Having read two of Frank Miller’s graphic novels: Return of the Dark Knight, Batman: Year One and parts of The Long Kiss Goodbye, That Yellow Bastard and A Dame to Kill For, I knew what I was getting into when I read 300 and later saw its film incarnation in the movie theater. Like Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City, director Zack Snyder uses the exact frames or pictures found in Frank Miller’s graphic novel as story broads for the film version of 300, replicating them and bringing them to life. If 300 had been made in the costly traditional fashion, the scenes in it may not have been as striking or as beautifully rendered, though blue screen limitations do become apparent here and there because of the outdoor nature of this film.

300 revolves around the zealous leadership of King Leonidas of Sparta, played by Gerard Butler, and a litany of testosterone infused dialogue spouted by him and most of the other cast members. Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey), who had three or four lines in the entirety of Frank Miller’s graphic book, finds her role greatly expanded in the film as the pugnacious and aggressive spouse to Leonidas. All of the other main characters from Miller’s book are present in the film including Stelios (Michael Fassbender), the seven-foot-tall Persian God-King Xerxes the First (Rodrigo Santoro) and deformed Ephialtes (Andre Tiernan). Xerxes still feels the sting of his father’s defeat at Marathon when Darius attempted to quell the Ionian revolt before his reign began and asks the military state of Sparta to pay tribute to him. King Leonidas refuses this offer, in his own special way. This refusal plunges Greece into war but since it is a special Spartan holiday, the Carneia, the Spartan army is forbidden by law against such an endeavor. With this in mind, the clever King decides to take a “walk” with 300 soldiers to the desolate and narrow pass of Thermopylae, a name that translates in English to Hot Gateway (Hot Gates in the book and film), the very place where the Persian army will land from the sea. On their march to the Gates, more Greek recruits are acquired by the Spartans, the desolation that awaits Greece under the heel of Persia is seen first hand and someone wishing to redeem his family’s name and honor is met.

Once the Spartan army reaches Hot Gates, what most people came to 300 to see, whether they read the graphic novel or not, occurs: beautifully choreographed battle scenes that do not skimp on the blood or the gore. Comparisons to Sin City and Gladiator are to be expected since Frank Miller wrote Sin City and because Gladiator, like 300, revolves around the charismatic leadership of one individual set in a vanished society ruled by blood and the whims of an elected senate. This is where the comparisons should logically end between Gladiator and 300. Gladiator is a film that deals with a society threatened from the inside, 300 deals with a society threatened from both the inside and the outside. If Sin City and 300 are to be compared, realize that these films exist in different film genres. One is a black and white film-noir film set in a fictional city and the other is a colorful action/drama set in the very real Thermopylae, Greece in 480 B.C. There linkage and common lineage is that Frank Miller wrote both graphic novels turned memorable films, that’s it.

300 is a film that will surprise viewers that are familiar with its source material and satisfy those that are not. Satisfied though I was, I was not expecting the sentimentality spliced into the final confrontation between the Persians and the Spartans. Would a king with his loyal and brave soldiers dying all around him, arrows in his body, instead of fighting, really stop and think about something other than strategy, pain and Hades? What about picking up your shield and sword and fighting to the death? Since parts of Frank Miller’s graphic novel were already modified for this film, why not modify this part and make it more realistic? Believe me, you have seen what Snyder has Leonidas think of a thousand times before in other films, the aforementioned Gladiator being among them. Another die-hard soldier, after doing exactly what he does in the graphic novel, is seen in his final moments dying on the battlefield, saying what an honor it has been serving with Leonidas. I thought it was obvious and would have been more fitting for the character, given his personality, to charge the lines of the Persians and acquire the Beautiful Death he had spoken of so fanatically earlier in the film. This area was addressed most pointedly in the graphic novel but I can see why it was not included in the film. Could the aim of a pampered, non-soldier like the God-King really be that accurate? I do not believe so and by Snyder’s modification of this, neither did he. All criticism for the final twenty minutes of the film aside, what preceded it was everything promised by Snyder, Miller, and the advertisements for this film.

==Written by Reginald Williams==

==From: Film-Book dot Com==

Frank Millers latest film adaptation 300 may be short on substance, but gets high marks for the visual orgy that unfolds on screen. Like its digital predecessors before it, Zack Snyder and crew successfully managed to integrate live action and a digital environment to render a film that is jaw droppingly gorgeous to watch. This is the ultimate guy movie; beautiful cinematography, exquisite costume design, a soaring soundtrack that is a mix of symphony and heavy metal, little dialogue and some of the most over the top violent imagery that puts Gladiator to shame. Never mind the lack of narrative, just look at that picture! One thing is for certain, after 2 hours of watching these guys duke it out in speedos and capes, you realize what an out of shape slob you are. Get off the couch and get on that Bowflex!

I have read many complaints online when the movie first came out that this is another typical action flick with no substance. In most cases I would have to agree, but in this film that is the point isn’t it? Its all about the 300 Spartans who showed up to kick some Persian ass. And no, this is not supposed to be historically accurate obviously, its based on a comic book after all. Lets not waste any more time here, bring on the next wave! In this film it just builds and builds, wave after wave getting more outlandish by the minute. It is so over the top that its fun to watch. It is a visual bloodbath, more talking just wastes time.

A majority of the dialog is told by the narrator, who turns out to be Dilios (David Wenham) the lone surviving Spartan. Initially you think he is talking to the audience, but it turns out it is another rousing pep talk to Spartan army just before the final push to remove the Persians from Greece. Again, just more exposition. Actually some of the dialog is hard to follow, especially by King Leonidas (Gerard Butler), seems like he has a mush mouth problem. You would think that if can massage the picture to be perfect, how about his voice?

As I said before, visually this film is stunning. Actually it is the star of the movie, the colors, the crispness and superior visual effects give that sense of ‘comic bookiness’. Uh I just invented a word there. Its just damn cool looking okay? If you have an aversion to blood splattering everywhere, limbs taking flight and bodies piled up 2 stories then avoid this movie. If you want to watch toned men in underwear kick some serious arse to heavy metal riffs then this movie is for you.

The second disc with the extra content is no slouch either. Annoyingly it does autorun with some trailers for hi def (featuring both formats by the way) that I couldn’t help but watch and drool. So after peeling myself away from that I dug into a lot of meaty content on here. There is a lengthy piece discussing the historical events versus the comic book versus the film, quite interesting actually. There are a couple of other featurettes exploring the background to this story and then of course all the usual trappings. I do like the fact they also crammed on all the webisodes that were released prior to the movie coming out. And if you want to know how to get abs like these guys, its on here too. Anyone have a truck tire laying around I can throw?

So to put it bluntly, 300 kicks ass, lots of it!

== Dvd-Dweeb.com ==

== www.dvd-dweeb.com ==

You'd be forgiven to think of 300 as being a guy's movie, because it certainly has a lot of elements that male viewers just find more appealing than (most) females do. From it's over the top and extremely well choreographed fights scenes to it's out and out manliness; this is a movie that I personally feel will bring in the money from the guys as opposed to the girls.

This movie has money-maker written all over it. Having already dominated the US Box Office for the second week in a row, and it now just hitting UK soil, I think it's fair to say this will be the king of the box office for at least three weeks. I might also add that it has broken a record in the box office area (in the US) as it is the highest

grossing movie to be released in March....ever. Leading (for those who haven'tseen it) for you to ask the question,"Can it really be that good?" And the answer to that question is yes...and no.

Perfection. One aspect of this film can be labelled so boldy. And that is the visual style

of it. Flawless in every respect, translated more than perfectly from page to screen. For those of you who saw the excellence that was Sin City, you know how well a comic-book (graphic novel) can translate onto screen, both holding it's own style yet still being true to the original subject matter. It was done pretty much perfectly with Sin City and that feat has been repeated with 300. The film throughout has this sort of golden, mustardy tone (colour) to it, with the exception of the red capes that the Spartan's wear so proudly and of course the blood, I really admired the way director Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead remake) has stylized the film as a whole. Some might say this highly stylized and bold tone to the visuals of the film would be distracting but if anything it highten's your engrossment in the whole thing.

It goes without saying that the films major strength comes from it's fight scenes. They are downright spectacular. Although about 80% of the film is battle after battle, kill after kill, it doesn't get boring. You simply want to see more and the reason it doesn't become tedious at all is because each fight has a different quality to it, a different view on different ways to do battle, whether it be army against army or one-on-one; you can't get enough of the battle scenes. Apart from the wonderful choreography aspect of the fight scenes, what I also loved was the slowing down and speeding up of the fighting. The camera spins, zooms, swivels round and pretty much does every other technique of directing a battle sequence that you could think of. It was like Snyder had a big slow motion button at his fingertips, and he was just having fun pressing it very frequently. Every moment of this film is jaw dropping to watch.

Although there is an overwhelming male dominance in the casting (and characters) and the obvious, stand out performance comes from the lead (Gerard Butler), one of the strongest (not literally of course) performance in the film came from the beautiful and relativelyunknown Lena Headey, who plays King Leanidus' wife

and the Queen of Sparta. She potrays a certainelement of presenceand power, (obviously) without using blunt force like the men do in thefilm. I think she was there to give you a rest from all the battles and killing (although not all that frequently) to just relax a bit before being flung back into battle (almost literally).

Let's not forget that you need more than visuals to hold a film up as being good in any way. By saying this I am referring somewhat to the soundtrack. They did a stellar job of mixing a traditional and original score with some pretty powerful (and very loud) power chords, that you could just feel rumbling in every direction, the seats of the cinema almost moving along with the music.

What I am also referring to when saying that you need more than visuals is something compulsory; a good storyline. Although 300 does have one (of course, it would be impossible not to have one), it does fall a little short on developing it or much else for that matter. Here we have these 300 men, ready to go into battle, and yet we know absolutely nothing about virtually all of them. Apart from Butler's character of the King and some other captain's and generals, we don't know who anyone is and therefore we end up not caring what happens to them. Also the dialogue of the film is pretty cheesy, some of the lines (that were used to heavily promote the film in the trailers) when used in the context of the film are eye-rolling. But I guess if you are going to watch an adaptation of the words of a graphic novel then you have to have some leaway in that respect.

I am not too sure when it comes to who would enjoy this film. It's unfair to assume that a female won't like this just because there is excessive violence and blood spraying, but (and I'm not being sexist here) I feel that way more males will enjoy this than females. It just has all the elements that an average guy movie-goer enjoys. But I don't want to discourage any females from taking the trip to go see this, it's most definitely worth it. And on that note, don't wait for this to come out on DVD, this is 100%, no doubt about it a cinema movie. You have to see it on the big screen to appreciate it in all it's visual glory.

Overview

If you don't like battle scenes, then avoid this like the plague. The film is one, long batte scene. It is visually stunning, perfect in that respect. But some of the dialogue is cheesy and storyline lacks depth a bit. But for all that was promised, 300 (almost) delivers. "Prepare for Glory?" Hell yes!

==Written by Ross Miller== ==From: Movie World (www.movie-world.moonfruit.com)==

Based on Frank Miller's graphic novel about the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. Like Sin City before it, 300 brings Frank Miller and Lynn Varley's graphic novel vividly to life. Gerard Butler (Beowulf and Grendel, The Phantom of the Opera) radiates pure power and charisma as Leonidas, the Grecian king who leads 300 of his fellow Spartans (including David Wenham of The Lord of the Rings) into a battle against the overwhelming force of Persian invaders. Their only hope is to neutralize the numerical advantage by confronting the Persians, led by King Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), at the narrow strait of Thermopylae. DVD SPECIAL FEATURES: Disc 1: Commentary by Director Zack Snyder, Writer Kurt Johnstad and Director of Photography Larry Fong Disc 2: Be 1 of 300, The 300: Fact or Fiction?, Who were the Spartans: The Warriors of 300, Frank Miller Tapes, Making of 300, Making 300 in images, Deleted Scenes with introductions by Zack Snyder, Webisodes LANGUAGES: English 5.1 SUBTITLES: English, Arabic, Hebrew, Icelandic, Greek