Every so often a movie appears early and burns itself into your consciousness, tempting you every day until its eventual release on the big screen. Casino Royale was just such a movie last year, if only because it was wonderful to see them go back to a rough, gritty, serious tone. Before that you might have to go back to the Lord of the Rings trilogy to find a film with such an enormous pull across a broad spectrum of people. One of the benefits of a long-established pedigree I suppose. 300's is its 2,500 year old story, its role as the defender of infant Greek democracy in the face of overwhelming tyranny. While hardly as famous a story as Alexander the Great's campaigns or the Roman empire in ancient history, the stand of 300 solitary Spartan warriors against the hundreds of thousands of troops available to the Persian Emperor Xerxes is easily one of the most compelling.
Filmed in much the same way as Frank Miller's previous adaptation, Sin City, with extensive (read complete) use of CGI and considerable artistic license in the factual nature of the battle and combatants, 300 is an awesome display of what an immense imagination and and prodigious talent can achieve. While it has attracted its naysayers over the last few weeks, most concerned with the raw visuals and lack of location shooting, it is very hard to deny that this isn't a landmark development in motion pictures. I would argue that it is the day CG effects came of age as an amazing spectacle which still knows its limitations. The seemless blending of the human protagonists with their bluescreen backdrop was jawdropping, and puts films only a few years old in the shade.
Most of the credit for this must go to Miller and director Zack Snyder, who have worked together to create a faithful rendition of the former's comic book. Because of this the liberties Miller took with the battle are perfectly allowable, such as the look of the Spartan warriors, the occasional monstrous creature and the rather pithy nature of the entire film. Even when King Leonidas (Butler) and his men occasionally deliver a line even Schwarzeneggar might have blanched at you can't question it for its accuracy, for how accurate can a comic book really be? In fact their light-hearted, stare-death-straight-in-the-face natures seem somehow emboldened by this, and when you go to a film to watch 300 hard-asses slice and dice the ancient values of heroism and self-sacrifice are very much part and parcel.
There are a few issues I took with the film, hence it's ever-so-close 4 and a half star rating, though these seem small and insignificant in comparison to the power of the picture itself. One could argue that Lena Headey as Queen Gorgo, while gorgeous, fails to fully grasp the qualities needed to play so strong and upstanding a character. Her Yorkshire accent doesn't help either. Most of the men are superb, though they have little to do but look like bodybuilders and cut people in half. Still, this is what 300 was rolled out as, and in this it doesn't even come close to disappointing. While I doubt it's subject matter will bestow Oscars upon it, it deserves success and platitudes. What ancient battle will be up next I wonder? |
