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300 (2007)

Director: Zack Snyder

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Synopsis

Adaptation of the graphic novel by Frank Miller about the battle fought between two ancient enemies.

Movie review

From Time Out Chicago

Sword-and-sandal epics were once fodder for Hollywood spending sprees, occasioning the assembly of massive sets, gaudy costumes and a battalion of famous faces. But in the digital era, as 300 dispiritingly proves, these elements can be simulated with blue screens and computers: Simply line up the muscle, dress it in jockeys and get it to bellow before the camera. Ever long to see an entire movie filmed with shallow focus and rear projection? See 300. Wallowing in the same adolescent nihilism as his Sin City, this adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel suffers from a similar lack of momentum. Featuring about as much detail on ancient Greece as you’d find in your average fraternity, the film ostensibly concerns the Battle of Thermopylae, in which King Leonidas (Butler) attempted to fend off the mammoth army of Persia’s Xerxes I (Santoro) with only 300 Spartans, who do better than you might expect. “Freedom isn’t free at all!” goes one battle cry, foreshadowing both Bush II and a song from Team America. If Sin City seemed overly invested in fluorescent castration, this Spartacus 3.0 spends an obscene amount of time reveling in creative beheadings. (Apart from flinging “gore” at the “lens,” the movie’s raison d’être is to parade Headey around in a succession of provocative tunics.) Given the presence of director Snyder—the man behind 2004’s elegant Dawn of the Dead remake—one might expect 300 to have a slightly higher batting average.

Author: Ben Kenigsberg

Time Out Chicago Issue 106: March 8–14, 2007

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