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Frank Miller's graphic novels are currently hot property in Hollywood, with Sin City's sizeable success in 2005 and now 300, which surpassed Sin City's whole US box office gross in four days, setting the March opening weekend record in the process. The anticipation it generated can mainly be attributed to its superb preview trailers. 300 is a trailer editor's dream, because it's stuffed with money shots and hugely stylish visuals. Over two hours, though, I found that the novelty factor did wear off slightly, with the restrictive colour palette (mainly gold, red and the occasional blue) making the style seem a bit samey all the way through. Still, Miller's source material, with its dramatically composed images and no shortage of action, is perfect cinematic fodder, and the film definitely never looks dull. Like Sin City, 300 was shot entirely on greenscreen stages, and this allowed director Zack Snyder to pull off camera moves and angles that would probably not have been feasible otherwise. One of the more noticeable techniques is the long takes during the fights, which alternate between slow and fast motion repeatedly in the same shot. It's a great change from quick-cut action where you can hardly make anything out, and really emphasises the complete "badassness" of the Spartan warriors. (In fact, I can see this style being grossly overused in the near future, thanks to this film's success.)
300 is held together by Gerard Butler's potentially star-making performance, who completely convinces as a leader that his followers would fight with to the death. It's this sort of performance that has been missing from other more 'realistic' historical epics of late. On the subject of realism, it's refreshing to see a film set in the ancient past that doesn't even remotely attempt to be historically accurate. Unlike Troy, which virtually eliminated the Greek gods from the story of The Iliad, 300 embraces the legends: the Persian army is a million strong, for example, and Persian King Xerxes is a giant (a rather effeminate one at that). To be honest, I wasn't that keen on the more supernatural elements, but that's just a matter of personal taste. In the end, 300 certainly provides a visceral thrill - especially seen on an IMAX screen - but I didn't find it completely engrossing. Perhaps the film was just so stylised that it took me out of the story.
The summary
To criticise 300 as style over substance would be missing the point (that is the point), but I did feel that it could have been a bit more absorbing. Nevertheless, it is definitely quite an experience and unlike any other film.
