300 Movie Review

I had good fortune of screening three hundred twice before writing up my review and seeing it second time solidified my opinion that I did like this film. But it also helped me decide that the glue actually holding the whole picture together wasn't the fantastic CGI effects. The blood and gore, the much discussed abdominals on the Spartan soldiers or the techno / rock soundtrack.The successfulness of this film lay precisely on the shoulders of Lena Headey as she played Queen Gorgo, a personality writer / director Zack Snyder made bigger than she was in Frank Miller's graphic novel of which the film was based. Fortunate for us that call was made. Three hundred tells the tale of the mythical Battle of Thermopylae as three hundred Spartan infantrymen face the enormous armed forces of the invading Persians controlled by the self-proclaimed God-King Xerxes. They're actually outmatched in numbers though not in heart or ability.

As the trailers guarantee the visuals of 300 are bigger than life and so striking it takes a second to adjust your eyes and believe what you are seeing. The three hundred men enrolled to Spartan King Leonidas's military are chiseled and prepared to battle. Snyder does a wonderful job telling his story through the words of Dilios as he shows a battle that would only exist in Spartan imagination as they see elephants and wrestlers of all sorts for the first time. Snyder also does a good job of dedicating a little time to explaining the Spartan fighting methods, which serves handy as they're making preparations to face impossible chances. As King Leonidas, Gerard Servant definitely puts himself squarely on the map.

I'm only able to think almost all of the people turning out for three hundred failed to catch Gerry in his last flick, Ghost of the Opera, so he's actually opening up to a much wider audience here. Servant turns in a menacing performance as he's the guts of the battleground and the shout heard among the masses.Those looking for a history lesson are not going to find it here as many freedoms are taken with the ancient story. Instead you are jumping into fanboy heaven with formalised blood and battle scenes, so much so your head will spin. Nonetheless for the filmgoer requiring more than simply bloody battlefields you get the connection between a king and not just his folks and his faithfulness to the land, but also his queen, the center-piece of the emotional high this flick receives. Queen Gorgo is the catalyst to the sole in-movie applause I heard in both of my screenings.

At the start of the film she lets out the line, Because only Spartan ladies give birth to real men.This line is forceful and degrading to the Persian messenger querying her attendance and sets the tone of the film from the outset. Lena Headey offered it with such conviction you would not dare question her and you can not help but fall for her beauty and on screen presence. With a running time under 2 hours three hundred does have its times where it plods along but this is a visually striking film you can not help but get wrapped up in it. Three hundred is truly like nothing that you have ever seen before. Even if you do not fall for the story, don't care about the men on the battleground or the Queen back home in Sparta you cannot help but enjoy the style in which this film was shot and the energy brought to each scene.

Three hundred isn't for everybody and it's not an ideal film, but so long as you open up your mind and let your inventiveness run free I do not see how you cannot find something to enjoy. As for taking a date fellas, I think many girls will be in a position to find pleasure in Queen Gorgo, it is not frequently you see ladies this dynamic on screen, even after a frightful moment of weakness.