Movie Review: 300

Went to see 300 this morning at the local IMAX with Stan, Randy, and Jackie. I’d just finished rereading the Frank Miller graphic novel, so I knew what I was getting into. Bottom line: great for what it is, beautifully rendered, but not destined to go down in cinematic history as much more than that.

300 (2007)

Overall		Story
Production		Acting

Story: The movie closely follows Miller’s retelling of the Spartan “victory” at Thermopylae, where 300 Spartans (along with sundry other Greeks) made a stand against the invading Persian armies of Xerxes, inspiring by their brave deaths the rest of Greece to eventually hurl back the invaders. That’s pretty much it, and there’s plenty of speechifying, blood, gore, battle, and Warriors Code to satisfy an IMAX theater of Klingons.

Zack Snyder (who directed), padded out the script some with two other writers, largely because the actual graphic novel would have been about an hour-long film. We now also get to see King Leonidas queen, Gorgo, dealing with political rivals at home who threaten to leave Leonidas in the lurch and sell out the nation to Xerxes. These additions may have been necessary, time-wise, but they are far more conventional and less involving than the original Miller material.

Beyond that, the characters are not all that interestingly fleshed out. That’s part of the “myth” aspect of the tale — nobody ever gets a lot of motivation and backstory from Greek Myth characters, nor do we get more in 300. Leonidas is brave, sees the Greeks as protectors of liberty (ironic coming from the king of the most brutal, most slave-holding, and least democratic of the Greek republics), and loves his wife and his homeland even unto death. The rest of the Spartansget even shorter shrift, with a father-son thread inserted that telegraphs tragedy a mile away.

And, at that, they fare better than the Persians, who are more noteworthy for their sneers and piercings than as their complexity as anything more than villains.

Acting: Within the bounds of the limited character stories, the actors all do quite well. No hamminess, despite some of the lines and speeches to be delivered. The bad guys are bad, the good guys are noble brutes, and everyone plays well their part.

Production: As an adaptation of a Frank Miller graphic novel, the standard for comparison is Sin City, and like that movie, 300 maintains a close adherence to Miller’s visual imagery. Making heavy use of CGI for backgrounds and other effects, computerized blood spatters, and heavy (bordering on excessive) use of “bullet time” super-slo-mo to highlight various action. (Indeed, if all of the slow motion were cranked up to full speed, this would be a 90 minute film, nota two hour one).

The only place where this falters is with some of the prosthetic “monsters” — a misshapen Spartan, a berserker giant, and the imperial executioner. Especially the first (who’s the only character from the graphic novel, and who gets the most screen time), these creations never quite look real enough, especially in close-up.

But beyond that, not only is the imagery, costuming, and set-work a close match for Miller’s novel, it’s just gorgeous. It also lends the whole production a slightly unreal air that keeps the gore, the horror, and the melodramatic speeches from seeming as over the top as they are. This is myth, legend, not gritty realism, and as such it works beautifully.

Overall: As a kickass bloody war film, 300 is great. Violent, yes, but steeped in blood in such a way that it’s not gratuitous, just part and parcel of the legend. As history, 300 is okay, with the basic outline of the historic events being as portrayed (IMDB FAQ) — the only disadvantage being that most of the folks who see it will still not recognize the name “Thermopylae.” As a characterpiece, it’s sorely lacking; only Leonidas gets more than one dimension, and he not much more than that.

But, then, that’s probably not why people are coming to see the film, but to see a big, bloody action spectacular, and 300 fills the bill. The movie’s rated R for violence (a-plenty), nudity (lots of nipplage, male and female alike) and sex (softcore), and is definitely not for youngsters (I’d wait until late teens on this one). I’m pleased I went to see it, though I don’t think I’ll probably get the DVD — I have the graphic novel, after all, which does at least as good a job.