Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

thomasjay-52277 Good structure, decent performances and some great action sequences I was slightly surprised. Sure it's really nothing more than a mindless popcorn action flick but in many ways it's a pleasant shock. Cemented in pop culture history for its iconic 'this is' scene it's worth a watch if you get the chance

daoldiges As usual I did no research and read no reviews before seeing 300, and so went into it with few expectations. For the first few minutes I wasn't quite sure what I was watching. It wasn't 'animation' but then again it didn't look like regular film, it was definitely enhanced and manipulated to give it an appearance unlike anything I'd seen before. I was curious to see more. However, after I'd adapted to these new visuals I was more available to focus on the story, script, and what was actually going on. That's where the trouble began. This film seems to be stuck in one gear - very high. Every scene was like yet another climax. It was unrelenting and before soon lost it's impact and power to excite. Also, the script wasn't so much dialogue as much as it was profound statements, rally cries, epic speeches meant to inspire and awe, and that was basically it. It seems this film was meant to awe and inspire the audience through its visuals only, but for me I need a supporting story and characters who, love them or hate them, I need to feel something for them. 300 is interesting to look at, but has nothing else going for it.

Tweetienator Great, impressive movie with unique pictures and action galore. 300 was like Sin City or Avatar or Matrix - a mind-blowing experience watching the first time. Zack Snyder directed this one and like with his Suckerpunch he created an unique world and style. Well, I didn't watch this epic 300 times but at least a dozen times. Good.

Robert J. Maxwell The story of Spartan King Leonidas holding the Persian Army of Xerxes at bay at the battle of Thermopylae. As far as I can remember -- I was there but it's been a long time -- it's reasonably accurate historically although perforce some of the dialog must be fabricated.If it has any redeeming social value it's probably that the kids who are the intended audience will learn that there was once a city called Sparta that wasn't in Mississippi.But the photography and f/x are something special. Images are in high contrast and tinted a kind of gold except at night, when they're tinted a kind of blue. Not midnight blue but kind of a neon blue.The acting is professional in caliber. Some of the monsters (for that's how they're depicted) overplay their roles, if that's possible. The women are attractive and it's interesting to see that the queen has been outfitted by Dior or somebody, wearing a dress cut perilously low on her iliac crests. The men are uniformly built. Their pecs are massive. Their abs are rock hard. In fact, they're built almost identically. Can you photoshop a group scene? If it weren't for the photography and f/x it could be a sword and sandal epic from 1958 filmed in Cinecittá starring Lance Sterling (née Guglielmo Gogliucci). But the photography alone almost redeems the film. The skies are straight out of J. M. W. Turner, smoky and smudged, but slowly swirling.It's thought provoking but the thoughts it provokes are primitive. There is no overlap between good (white Spartans) and evil (black Persians). This kind of binary thinking is dangerous because it's liable to lead us into believing that this is the way the real world works -- all good versus all evil -- whereas in fact God didn't make the universe in a way that renders it so easy for humans to understand.Too bad they distilled Spartan culture into nothing more than a lot of heroes taking "drunk delight in battle with my peers." The Spartans certainly fought well and the battle scenes are impressive except when they lapse into very slow motion or are overcranked to lightning speed.Sparta must have been a nice place to visit though you wouldn't want to live there. They periodically raided their neighbors, the peaceful Helots, for slaves. Older mentors adopted young boys as sexual objects. If a newborn was deformed or otherwise deemed unfit it was put down.