300: Review

It is with great fanfare that 300 made its way into theaters this weekend and upon its arrival, there will undoubtedly be an equal series of screams of joy and disgust, of praise and contempt. The film is a hyper-masculine actioner, drenched in blood and sweat and completely devoid of any sort of intelligence. When the film works, it is spectacular; placing one visually stunning sequence upon another until finally, it all comes to a gory end. However, when it fails, the moments are laughable. Equally stirring and frustrating, it exhibits almost none of the subtlety that Frank Miller, who wrote the source graphic novel, has developed over the course of his career and instead, goes with breathless, brutal action and a mindless script that is chock full of dull and derivative lines, most of which are eye rolling in their absurdity.

Centering on the story of the Battle of Thermopylae, in which 300 Spartans held off what some swear was a million Persians, the film uses its first 25 minutes to set up the battle and away we go. What follows is an hour and a half of pure spectacle, all half naked men fighting arm in arm attempting to fend off the Persian horde. As mentioned above, the film’s main draw and appeal is its amazing visuals, which I feared may become repetitive as narrative wore on but can positively say that it never does. This is a film to be seen on the big screen with the sound turned up loud with the crowd eagerly anticipating the next gory beheading. In a lesser environment, say, a home theater, much of the film’s bombastic, spectacular nature will be lost and may end up seeming even more laughable than it already does.

Snyder is a talented director, but one wishes that he would display some restraint, a trait that is obviously missing here. Each sequence ramps up the danger, to the point of adding almost inhuman monsters (a towering giant, an obese man with swords in place of what use to be forearms) to the proceedings, until finally, the Spartans are forced to fight the entire remaining Persian army. The finale, given the rest of the films over the top nature, seems all too brief and abrupt. Just as the viewer is gearing up for the other hand to drop, the battle is over and I must admit, its rather disappointing. Having sat through the first hour and 45 minutes, I wish that one of the previous encounters had been cut in favor for a longer, more involved climax. As the film unabashedly throws the gore around up to that point, one wishes that it would have a better conclusion.

The script is virtually non existent, filled with mindless, meant to be motivational one liners, all of which somehow use the word Sparta or Spartans, which, without fail, is overly enunciated by Gerard Butler, who plays King Leonidas, leader of the Spartans. Much of the dialogue consists of one dimensional screaming and yelling, none of which holds any thematic weight, save for the admittedly stirring speech following the conclusion of the battle. Butler is charismatic enough in the lead role and tries his damnedest to inject some feeling into the overly dramatic dialogue. Dominic West, who is so good in HBO’s The Wire, is under used here but makes the most of his screen time. The rest of the cast are more or less faceless, except for David Wenham, who played Faramir in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Peter Jackson’s masterworks while watching 300, longing for his eloquent and human touch to inject some feeling and complexity into the proceedings. In fact, it may be easiest to describe 300 as no more than the Battle of Helm’s Deep from the second installment of the Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, stretched out for another hour with half of the heart and a quarter of the smarts.

300 is not a complete failure. For what it is, it is entertaining and held this writer’s attention for the duration of its runtime and at times, it is down right masterful, whipping up a visceral gut reaction that is always welcomed when going to an action flick. Unfortunately for it, it suffers from being released almost two years after the concluding chapter of Jackson’s trilogy and as a result, pales in comparison. For those seeking straight thrills with plenty of blood, gore and beautiful bodies on display, 300 will be worth your time, especially on the big screen. For the rest however, who want to feel that visceral rush without having to check your brains at the door, it will disappoint, just another example of a big budget Hollywood epic that is all flash and noise with little intelligence and will undoubtedly make you yearn for the grand pictures of the past, the Spartacus’ and the Ben-Hur’s to quench your sword and sandal thirst.

***/*****