300

A preliminary note: I hate this movie more on an idological level than a practical level. I hate it for what it represents more than for what it is.

What it is is a stupid movie, not the worst but not the best. And I can see how it’d be hard to hate this movie: it’s got blood; it’s got violence; it’s got sex; it’s got naked women. What else can one ask for, right?

How about purpose? Too hard for you, Zack (that’s Zach with a “K” as in “Kill Me Now Please.”) Snyder? My apologies.

The movie is not bad at what it does. Stylistically, it looks great. The atmosphere is creepy; the effects are wonderful; and the violence is very realistic. The artistic quality of the graphic novel has been visually transfered to the screen very well.

The question is "why?" No one making this movie wants to tell this story because it needs to be told. They're telling it because they want to make money and have frat boys say it was "fucking awesome."

Everything is a device. Extreme violence and pointless nudity/sex pull in the straight guys. Buff, half-clothed men for the gay ones and ladies. The father/son relationship at the beginning exists so that one can die later, causing an emotional "moment." Swelling, overly-orchestrated scenes to tell an audience member what is emotional and when they should react, also overloaded with vague emphatic embraces of this concept of freedom.

All of it is manufactured. There was no visionary guiding this film. Someone thought this concept should be a movie and made it one. And while it is not terrible, it does mark the beginning of what will become something terrible: the mass manufacturing of this faux-period drama, actual-meaningless action crap.

300 may have died valiantly at the hands of the Persians after holding their own for so long against insurmountable odds. Unfortunately, if it means a new onslaught of fabricated films with no heart, I would have preferred that their memory was lost forever.


Read more about my pondering of why there are so many half-clothed men in this film here.
The critical conensus on 300 can be seen here.