See the movie, read the book
Reading the reviews, this film have two type of opinions: very, very bad, very very good.
In my opionion is a very, very, very good film. If you search a historical rappresentation you make a mistake.
Movie and book are a perfect "personal" interpretation of Leonida's men sacrifice. Vivid colours (more red blood than others) dialogues reducted to some essential phrases, powerfull graphic presentation. Read the book and see the movie, its perfect trasposition, with a good cast and a very good soundtrack. The best action movie of the year made on the basis of the best graphic novel of the year (2k miles "above" V for Vendetta, movie and book).

Rent it, dont buy it.
Visually its pretty interesting. A lot of the ideas are good but are let down by the rubbish CGI BIG TIME.

Historically its patchy at best (but aren't all films of this ilk. Its worth a watch if your interested in this kind of thing but to be honest the original film was better and if you have seen that, you can appreciate the magnitude of the statement.

By far the best rendition of the battle of thermopylae can be found in Herodotus' Histories. here the story is presented amongst others with a good balance of history, philosophy, drama and even comedy. read it before you make your mind up!

Unsubtle but Bland
300 is a strange film. It's a film which is based on a comic - I know aficionados like to call them 'graphic novels', but that's what they are I'm afraid - of the same name by Frank Miller. It is a story about the Spartan 'backs to the wall' defence at Thermopylae in 480 BC, which put up a courageous but ultimately failed resistance against the Persian king Xerxes I; the force included (but not, as the film implies, exclusively) 300 Spartans, hence the title. So, a film adaptation from a comic, based on a battle more than two thousand years ago, which we don't know an awful lot about. In short, not your average sort of film.

And it's certainly the case that 300 stands out for it's boldness - the film is visually inviting in it's half-CGI, half real people lushness. That said, I did not immediately take to the concept here, which, as far as I knew before I watched it, was a rather ethno-nationalist one; the 'Clash of Civilisations' and all that. Which is indeed broadly the case. This I have to say, I was not too bothered about - the film is so absurdly cartoonish, it's hard to see how anyone would take it particularly seriously in that respect, and it does not aim towards subtlety; it's main focus is very rich, hyperactive action. It *is* meant to be a black-and-white affair, so such minor details as the fact that the Spartan Dorians were considered to be the originators of Greek homosexuality (and were far from averse towards same-sex relationships in this period; indeed, they were institutionalised) is airbrushed, indeed fully reversed, with Leonidas implying that the Athenians are the effete philosopher types and Spartans are real women's men - an attitude which is somewhat incongruous alongside the mildly puzzling fact that the Spartans spend the vast majority of the film largely naked, and grunting alongside each other. But I don't give a damn about this, frankly - this is a film, not a history lecture, and people know that.

In respect of the central core of the film - well, maybe I'm a little odd, or just jaded after decades worth of sitting saucer-eyed watching a multitude of incredibly violent films, but the action sequences - probably the main reason to watch this film for most people, I imagine - moved me not a jot. I think this may have something to do with the use of CGI - you just don't have the same levels of either excitement or involvement that you do with actual plain bog-standard film, of, say, the Kill Bill variety - another film which has massive amounts of stylised violence, but just allows you to adequately suspend your disbelief and keeps you involved. 300 crushes your disbelief under the feet of fifty-foot tall war elephants driven by faceless Persian peons, before a 12 foot tall androgynous Xerxes comes to whisper sweet nothings to it's dribbling corpse whilst caressing it with hands the size of bin lids. In the end, the film over-stylises itself to death, at the same time that it's desperate to be taken a bit more seriously than it's comic predecessor.

The weird thing is that some of the best parts of this film are the points at which it allows itself to engage in such otherwise alien concepts as characterisation and pathos. For example, when Astinos has his head lanced, and when Gorgo knifes Theron in the stomach at the end - all brilliant little scenes, wonderfully shot, and all neatly illustrating the ideas of self-sacrifice and morally justified but bloody struggle at the heart of the film. But for large sections of the film, this kind of thing is nowhere. The film is actually more complex than has been suggested, but it's a complexity which is hidden, elusive. Most of the time, it's obscured by stilted dialogue or banal ultraviolence.

Despite this, it isn't really too bad a film, for what it amounts to. Whatever some people might like to say about the messages the film delivers, it's certainly an awful lot more coherent in respect of them than another recent comic film adaptation I've just thought of, (V for Vendetta) possibly because they're an awful lot simpler here (no bad thing in itself) and they make an awful lot more sense; despite what I said above, the film certainly keeps whatever messages it has short and pithy. It's not a great film, but it does sparkle in some places. But as an action film, I found it rather unstimulating.

GREAT HISTORICAL LY CORRECT FILM
300 is a really well done and historically correct film - although the Persians might not like the fact that their entire army of thousands was slain by only 300 Spartans. It therefore was banned in Iran.
300 features impressive battle scenes and is visually brilliant. It also is quite violent but nowhere near its bad reputation. Battles are in the spotlight here, so don't be expecting too much of anything else.

SPECTACULAR and EMOTIONAL
What can be said that hasnt? This is a beautiful movie but I only hope everyone saw it in theatres, the bigger the screen the better for this movie.

The commentary is worth a listen but be warned they liked the movie on the big Imax screen too, and mention this a lot through out the movie how you can see more if its an Imax print. This made me feel a little cheated and I dont think they should have gone on about it so explicitly but that aside this is going to be a beautiful rich movie with style however big your screen is.


As for emotional, my friends ,male and female both cried at the end of it.

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