Review of 300 (2007) by Victor T — 29 Aug 2014

Following his adequate debut, the 2004 "Dawn of the Dead" remake, Zack Snyder gave audiences an adaptation of Frank Miller´s graphic novel, 300, with a Sin City like visual style.

Leonidas is king of the glorious Ancient Greece city Sparta but one day a Persian messenger arrives at the gates of Sparta with a demand of summation to the Persian King/God Xerxes. Offended, Leonidas kills the messenger thus starting a war between Sparta and Persia, but Leonidas is negated to take the Spartan army to battle so he takes his best 300 soldiers to battle the gigantic Persian army.

Frank Miller´s works have been the source material for numerous comic book films but almost all of them were executed terribly like "Daredevil" and the "The Spirit", to say some examples, but there a handful of enjoyable adaptations of his works like "Sin City" but "300" is right there in the middle. It counts with a fantastic choreography, a pretty interesting visual style, good looking battles, impressive, but obvious, CGI; good performances, some awesome and memorable moments, and provides a fun and entertaining experience. But 300 also counts with more than just a handful of problems: The story is straightforward but is nothing more than an excuse for the battles to happen (I know that an action film is not about story but knowing that Frank Miller served as the source material, I expected 300´s graphic novel would count with one of his typical dark and over the top stories), the dialog falls into absurdity in certain moments, it counts with one dimensional characters, an annoying overuse of slow motion, it has the machismo vibe from the 80´s action films, the editing is confusing in the action scenes, the "shot for shot" idea for an adaptation is brilliant but the execution isn't as exciting as it sounded on paper because at times it's fun to watch and others its unnecessary and annoying; and while Snyder´s heavy on special effects visual style is what makes 300 a memorable film, after some time becomes a distraction.

Zack Snyder managed to make another adequate film, 300 is a visually intriguing and entertaining film that despite its big failures, it still worth watching. Action and Frank Miller´s fans will definitely like it.