Last night, I went out and saw 300, the Spartan ballet of death movie that’s supposed to be the first blockbuster hit of the year.
In short: it was.
I walked out of that theater with a smile on my face. No, not because I’m a creepy person who loves decapitation and nude women dancing around, but because that movie was everything I expected it to be. It was action-packed to the max, and the slow-down, speed-up sequences were evocative of the Matrix movies, but with less silly plot lines. There was even a nice little subplot featuring the Spartan queen, battling political corruption (and slimy councilmen) at home. This is definitely a movie I’d recommend people to see.
Was it stylized? Oh yes. But that was just another thing that made it worth seeing. You don’t go to the movies to learn history. You go to be entertained. 300 was definitely more of a fantasy film with some of the elements in it (9 foot tall God-kings, executioners with bone-saws for arms, etc.), but they just made the movie that much cooler. I don’t know why, but I have a thing for “last stand” type movies, which is probably why I liked the movie so much. If I had a little star rating thing, I’d give 300 five stars out of five. Because I’m cool like that.
