First review of "300"

By Ironman273
in Movie Ratings

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Rising Star

FocusX

Posted
Posted

Just saw the movie (today was the official premiere here in Greece :woot: )

It might be a little too soon to write about it since it's only been 2 hours I left the cinema but... I can't help it.

First, this is going to be a controversial movie, no doubt about it. My guess is that there will be people who will absolutely love it and others that will hate every minute. I belong to the first...

It's well known that this is not a historically accurate movie, it's based on a comic book. Taking that into account, I must say I am impressed. The hype is justified.

There are many extremely powerful scenes. Butler is amazing as King Leonidas (his look at the end is something I won't forget soon). The fighting sequences are everything the trailer suggests, quite bloody but not in a disturbing manner. Technically the movie excels, the soundtrack is fitting and powerful. An area the movie could be better, is building up the tension before the battle but that's a minor flaw when everything else works brilliantly.

Just a warning, don't go see it if you want historical accuracy. There are many things here that are fictional and my opinion is that they work extremely well with the tone of the movie. For everyone that has seen the trailer and found it at least interesting, go see it and you won't regret it. Pure cinematic pleasure!

9/10 and a must see (twice) :yes:

post-17196-1173403212.jpg

Grand Master

Slane

Posted
Posted

Just saw a midnight release here over in the US, and I loved it. The story, the action, just everything about it seemed epic. Short movie, but it's constantly moving, and you loose track of time. Anyone who is debating seeing it, I'm telling ya to go, it's amazing.

Grand Master

Kev1n

Posted
Posted

The Good: Some awesome fights. Truly excellent visuals.

The Bad: Feels hollow emotionally, too much shouting from Leonidas, cliched dialogue, repetitive fight scenes, and too much slow-mo.

The ugly:

I found it darn stupid when the wife kills the *******, and the council finds out who he really is, and t they then shout in a tone that sounds like they just won the biggest battle ever. I expected them to be shocked... not shouting 'TRAITOR!!" in their loudest voice ever. :lol:

7.5/10.

Different type of movies, but Sin City owns this.

Grand Master

azcodemonkey

Posted
Posted
The Good: Some awesome fights. Truly excellent visuals.

The Bad: Feels hollow emotionally, too much shouting from Leonidas, cliched dialogue, repetitive fight scenes, and too much slow-mo.

The ugly:

I found it darn stupid when the wife kills the *******, and the council finds out who he really is, and t they then shout in a tone that sounds like they just won the biggest battle ever. I expected them to be shocked... not shouting 'TRAITOR!!" in their loudest voice ever. :lol:

7.5/10.

I saw this at 12:01 this morning. I loved it, even though there were a couple of things I didn't like. I think this movie delivered exactly what it had implied it would deliver -- visceral fighting scenes, incredible visuals, and fantastical story. There isn't a lot of character development. There really doesn't need to be. This story is an interpretation of 300 men that stood against Persia's horde.

As far as cliched dialogue, I really don't agree. I think this movie is a military movie that takes place 2400 years ago. The Spartans defined military life. They lived together, fought together and died together. I think the banter was very appropriate, and probably not far from the mark. I don't know of many other ways to show camaraderie. I loved the levity in some parts. It really illustrated their confidence.

What I found inconsistent or weak:

Leonidas explained that any weakness in the phalanx would endanger them all, and yet they broke ranks and left the terrain that gave them the upper hand.

I didn't like the inclusion of the Ephialtes(the deformed Spartan) and the obvious foreshadowing of inevitable betrayal. I thought this could have been done much better, or could have been excluded completely.

As far as the audience with the council goes:

They were yelling "Traitor" because other council members couldn't see what had fallen to the ground with Theron. They didn't have closed-circuit TV or PA systems back then. ;)

Different type of movies, but Sin City owns this.

Hmmm... Not in my opinion. I think 300 is heads above Sin City. Sin City was boring, probably due mostly to poor editing. It had good performances, but it was not well put together. Add to that the fact that the Stripper never got naked, and you have a disappointing movie. ;) :D

9/10

Mentor

benac

Posted
Posted

Excellent movie. The words "Visual Masterpiece" come to mind, Much like when i think of Frank Miller's own graphic novels. If your looking for action, 300 delivers. I found the battle scenes to be quite refreshing and showing of the vast nature of Xerxes' empire. I found the almost "A-sexual" Demi-god Xerxes to be quite interesting. His large size and strong voice gave him believeable symbolic properties of a god-like man. Leonidas himself comes off as a strong King with a never give up attitude. You defiantly get the vibe that these Men truly lived to die gloriously on the battlefield. Even some of the almost comical moments of Leonidas casually eating an apple while his men attend to the Persian wounded, meshed well.

9/10.

Leonidas explained that any weakness in the phalanx would endanger them all, and yet they broke ranks and left the terrain that gave them the upper hand.

I didn't like the inclusion of the Ephialtes(the deformed Spartan) and the obvious foreshadowing of inevitable betrayal. I thought this could have been done much better, or could have been excluded completely.

I agree 100%.

Short movie, but it's constantly moving, and you loose track of time.

You must have been wanting for more, because it was a respectable 125 minutes long.

Grand Master

mattmatik

Posted
Posted

Well, got to see this in IMAX after my Ethics class. In fact, much of the class my professor was bringing up 300 and I just had to get into a conversation with him about the ethical and moral ways of the Spartans...and the rest of the world at the time, for that matter. Very interesting stuff.

Anyway, I went with a couple friends from class and we highly enjoyed it. The whole pace of the movie was fantastic. 2 hours went by like nothing. I loved the beginning and how they show a Sparta boy from birth to age of man - that part of the Sparta life has always intrigued me. The show I went to was sold out, which at 1130am is pretty rare. Once the final scene went off about half of the audience gave an ovation. Almost all were male - this is truly a man's movie, which would be precisely why my fiance turned her nose up to it, haha!

I loved Sin City but thought this was done just a bit better. It's probably my interest in the era and the Greek philosophy and lifestyle but man, this movie is one of my favorites of all time. Can't wait to see it again. On IMAX of course!

"Hundreds walked away. Just a handful stayed. Only one of them looked back." Probably my favorite scene of the movie and definitely best line.

Grand Master

Kev1n

Posted
Posted
What I found inconsistent or weak:

Leonidas explained that any weakness in the phalanx would endanger them all, and yet they broke ranks and left the terrain that gave them the upper hand.

I didn't like the inclusion of the Ephialtes(the deformed Spartan) and the obvious foreshadowing of inevitable betrayal. I thought this could have been done much better, or could have been excluded completely.

I dont know about the graphic novel, but there was indeed a greek native who turned traitor and told them the secret passageway. But I agree that the obvious foretelling of it was very weak.

As far as the audience with the council goes:

They were yelling "Traitor" because other council members couldn't see what had fallen to the ground with Theron. They didn't have closed-circuit TV or PA systems back then. ;)

About the council scene. They didnt have to shout like they did in the film. I mean, once of them shouted 'traitor!' and then all the other shouted in unison 'TRAITOR!'. There should have been whispers and faces of bewilderment/shock, instead they yelled as if they conquered the whole world. Worst scene in the film, but yeah it was a minor one but I just had to mention it. :p

Hmmm... Not in my opinion. I think 300 is heads above Sin City. Sin City was boring, probably due mostly to poor editing. It had good performances, but it was not well put together. Add to that the fact that the Stripper never got naked, and you have a disappointing movie. ;) :D

I thought Sin City was much more interesting. It had 3 intertwining stories, which although were predictable fare, were so damn entertaining to watch because of the way things unfolded and also because of the excellent narration. To each his own I guess, 2 different films written by the same author. I apologize for brining Sin City up. :D

Also, anyone felt the blood in 300 was too videogame-ish? They look really nice when you first see them, then they just kind of disappear into thin air, like how videogame blood magically disappear. And I thought the fight scenes were repetitive because there was too much slow-mo. 300 had more slow-mo than all 3 of the Matrix films combined. I bet if it were in real-time the runtime would be only an hour. :p

Good film none-the-less.

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