REVIEW: 300

300

Director: Zack Snyder

Year: 2007

Plot Summary: In the midst of the Persian-Greco war, Spartan King Leonidas leads his army of 300 soldiers into battle against the invading Persian army during the Battle of Thermopylae.

Although I hated his adaptation of Watchmen with a strong passion, I was convinced by a friend to watch Zack Snyder's acclaimed 300 a few weeks ago. Adapted from the graphic novel by Frank Miller, the man who created the surprisingly entertaining neo-noir Sin City, it tells the story of Spartan king Leonidas who took his army of just 300 men to war against an invading Persian force. Nevertheless, despite what IMDB users or various critics have said, I found 300 to be even more terrible, cringe-worthy and infuriating than the aforementioned Watchmen.

Though telling a story in a unique fashion is something I very often praise, Zack Snyder's hybrid hyperactive, MTV style of film-making with the setting of the Persian-Greco war is just completely stupid. While I don't agree that every film set many years ago should stick to a classical score and the conventional style of cinematography, the use of green screen effects, heavy metal music and slow motion is perhaps a little too far.

Even if the style was suitable, furthermore, it is used far too much. Instead of using it to enhance scenes, it overpowers the entire narrative and means that 300's main drive is where it will go stylistically rather than narratively. Again, this is all well and good, but the special effects aren't even that amazing. As limbs fly through the air and bodies fall off a cliffside in a sepia silhouette and with arcs of blood, you can't help but think that a film like Lord Of The Rings or Harry Potter is far more visually stunning.

This lack of a narrative drive is the huge downfall of 300 because you simply don't care where the characters are going, you don't care whether they live or die and you have little interest in whether the 300 men are able to defeat the Persians at all. It doesn't exactly help, moreover, that there is nothing that distinguishes any of the 300 men from one another. They're basically all the same men with different ripped, muscled bodies.

Another poor outing from Zack Snyder who is proving to be one of the worst directors in contemporary cinema. 300 may be full of testosterone, but it lacks any entertainment value.

1/5

By Daniel Sarath with 1 comment