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)==

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, Michael Fassbender, and Andrew Pleavin) 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. More engaging than Troy, the tepid and somewhat similar epic of ancient Greece, 300 is also comparable to Sin City in that the actors were shot on green screen, then added to digitally created backgrounds. The effort pays off in a strikingly stylized look and huge, sweeping battle scenes. However, it's not as to-the-letter faithful to Miller's source material as Sin City was. The plot is the same, and many of the book's images are represented just about perfectly. But some extra material has been added, including new villains (who would be considered "bosses" if this were a video game, and it often feels like one) and a political subplot involving new characters and a significantly expanded role for the Queen of Sparta (Lena Headey). While this subplot by director Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead) and his fellow co-writers does break up the violence, most fans would probably dismiss it as filler if it didn't involve the sexy Headey. Other viewers, of course, will be turned off by the waves of spurting blood, flying body parts, and surging testosterone. (The six-pack abs are also relentless, and the movie has more and less nudity--more female, less male--than the graphic novel.) Still, as a representation of Miller's work and as an ancient-themed action flick with a modern edge, 300 delivers. --David Horiuchi