300 Review

300 Review


This Digital Life.com


July 16, 2007


by Andy B



‘300’ is a movie based on the graphic novel of the same name, by ‘Frank Miller’. Having never seen (or even heard of) the graphic novel, I went into this film open minded but at the same time reserved. I’m generally not a fan of artistic films, nor am I generally a fan of war films set in the past. I can safely say that ‘300’ has changed my opinion completely – I loved it.

‘300’ is a story of war between the Spartans and the Persians. The Persians are all for conquering the world, but the Spartans, hardened warriors and fighters, aren’t willing to give into their bullying and thus a war ensues. There is obviously more to it than that, but I don’t want to go into too much detail. The film has received very mixed reviews (although generally favourable from what I’ve seen), the main points of complaint being the story, or lack of. I have to be honest and say that I thought the story was fine. Sure, there were no massive twists or intelligent plot-lines, but that doesn’t matter, and I think if it had either of these things it could have taken away from the simplicity of the film.

If you’ve seen any clips of ’300’ then you have probably seen it’s rather unique art direction (similar to Sin City I’m told, but I haven’t seen that film myself so can neither confirm nor deny). The majority of the film is shot on a ‘greenscreen’ in a studio, and the backdrops are then placed in afterwards. This leads to backdrops that often look slightly ‘fake’ but at the same time, stunning. The film uses colours to convey the mood of the scenes – but there seems to be an overall yellow colour to everything which was a little off-putting. As I’ve said previously, artistic films aren’t usually my thing, but some of the cinematography in this film is just too amazing to not like!

There is a lot of CGI in ‘300’, which is slightly off-putting. The effects can be very over-the-top, but I just think they look simply awesome. You can never get bored of seeing limbs get chopped off!

The acting is good throughout, although slightly clichéd at times. It’s nice to see lots of actors that I didn’t recognize, as far as I could tell there weren’t any ‘big names’ in there to try and get sales. Leonidas, the King of the Spartans is played by Gerard Butler. His performance is incredibly powerful – it makes you want to roar along with him when he’s get his army ready for war!

It’s rare to see such a powerful film as ‘300’. Whilst the film isn’t really sad in any way, it does make you emotional because you really believe the characters, and feel for them, wildly outnumbered and scared, but at the same time, covering it up and putting a brave and heroic face on. You leave the film feeling empowered and in awe of the Spartans.

This is one of the best films I have seen in the past few years. I’m really bad at watching films – I’m usually waiting for them to end because I’m bored. That wasn’t the case with ‘300’ – I didn’t want it to end! Simply stunning!



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