300

Director: Zack Snyder

Gerard Butler (King Leonidas)

Lena Headey (Queen Gorgo)

Dominic West (Theron)

David Wenham (Dilios)

Vincent Regan (Captain)

Rodrigo Santoro (Xerxes)

Based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel about the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C., “300" tells the story of King Leonidas (Gerard Butler), ruler of Sparta. When the Persians threaten invasion, King Leonidas rallies all of Sparta to war, though his cries go unheard by the high priests and the rest of the council. Leonidas breaks traditions, and along with 300 Spartan warriors, travels to the coast to meet an army of millions.

 But, as we are told countless times, Spartan soldiers are not like other soldiers – they are trained to kill from the time they can walk, and each Spartan can pretty much take out 100 men by himself. Leonidas and his 300 men spend much of the film slashing and dashing through the Persian forces like they’re nothing, finding chaotic zeal in their slaughtering and even hoping that they are afforded the chance to die in battle.

 Meanwhile, back in Sparta, the corrupt Theron (Dominic West) is trying everything he can to keep Leonidas’ wife, the Queen (Lena Headey) from speaking to the council in an effort to rally more troops to meet Leonidas. I would venture to say that 75% of this film is battle sequences – Leonidas and his men continually killing everything in site and overcoming staggering odds on the battlefield. The film finally ends in a blaze of glory for the Spartans – something they wanted all along.

There are some fundamental problems with this film. “300" wants to be the blood soaked epic of the year, touting its R-rating like a certificate of authenticity. The problem is that none of the blood looks real. When I see someone killed in a Scorsese picture, I feel it. When Joe Pesci went ballistic in the guy in the bar with the ink pen – I felt it. It was painful. When I see Leonidas and his men running up and down the battlefield, swinging their swords wildly with CGI blood flying at the screen, it has no more affect on me than watching someone killed in “Grand Theft Auto”.

Therefore, any emotional attachment I might traditionally develop for the characters is gone. I don’t care if they live or die because dying doesn’t look real. “300" lacks a lot of human emotion than was present in other war epics like “Gladiator”, “Braveheart” and even “Troy”. What “300" tries to do is present a balls-to-the-wall action film with as much blood and carnage as possible. That would be fine if they didn’t introduce us to characters like Queen Gorgo and Captain (Vincent Regan), who loses his son in battle. Normally, I would feel bad for a father who loses a son, but even the father himself states early on that he has more sons to replace him. How can you act like a blood-thirsty killer one moment and then a sensitive grieving father the next? That didn’t work for me and all of the emotion was lost. “300" was a case of commotion over emotion.