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Auron41 -> RE: 300 (24/3/2007 4:42:51 PM)
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Spot on Empire. *Pasted from other thread*
"There's no reason why we can't all be civil, is there?"
I just got back from watching 300, and I must say it really tested my philosophy that no film is a waste of time.
From the offset it looked promising, with it's grainy yet surreal cinematography doing the graphic novel justice.
The decline began with the sex scene. Excessive slow-mo's in combat I can forgive, but did we really need to sit through thirty seconds of Gorgo's melons pounding away at a snail's pace? I had to laugh.
What I did appreciate was a leaning towards the mythological. The film makes it obvious that it has no intention of remaining historically accurate, and I struggle to see why so many have argued over this. No, the real Persian army was not a force of a million men, ogres and goat-headed minstrels. Who'd have thought? Moreover, scenes such as the drugged oracle and the arrow-eclipse were memorable and inspired.
Furthermore, the choreography was enjoyable; finally a film that focuses on detailed individual action instead of two huge CGI forces vaguely clashing together (Troy, Alexander). The problems occur when the fighting becomes tired, and a much more brutal, gruesome element comes into play.
The dialog.
I swear if someone screams "SPAAAAAARTAAAAA!!!!" one more time, I'll have to don a codpiece and do some serious arse-kicking of my own. The only believable speech comes from Gorgo as she addresses the council, and by that point the audience no longer cares. All due respect to her for acting better than her melons, however, which is more than most of the cast do; there airbrushed abs convey the Spartan ideal better than any amount of slo-mo headshot barking.
And dare I mention the music?! Death metal is appropriate in name alone. I cringed as the remaining Spartans marched towards camera in slow-motion, accompanied by goodness-know's-what guitar band.
Perhaps the biggest flaw of this movie is the concept itself. The audience doesn't empathise with the Spartans, despite Snyder's best attempts to make them the heroes (they have the looks, they havethe looks, the lines, they are the David versus the Goliath). However, they are arrogant, brutal, with no respect or vision beyond their own borders. This makes scenes such as the decapitation of the Captain's son, and the resulting grief, particularly worthless. In terms of conjuring compassion in the audience, you can see the attempts and that makes them fail even more.
Against films such as The Last Samurai, which actually references the battle of Thermopolae and evokes a hundred times the emotion and empathy, 300 falls short by a long way.
So in summary, 300 should have accepted that it's predominantly superficial and stayed that way, for the action is very easy on the eye and this counters the usual lack of dialog expected with historical epics. The portions of the film that try and tackle grief, loyalty, brotherhood and idealism mar it irrevocably with an air of campness only rivalled by Xerxes' exceptionally well-painted nails. It will no-doubt appease the die-hard fans of the graphic novel, but to the vast cinema-going audience it is excruciatingly hollow and ironically spartan.
2.5 *s
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