If you're an action junkie that doesn't really care about a story per se, then this movie is definitely for you. Full of hardcore fighting, ridiculous poses by buff guys in armor and obscenely weird fashion sense, 300 looks and feels great. The movie is directed by Zack Snyder from a graphic novel by Frank Miller (who wrote the comics for Sin City and the upcoming Sin City 2).

The story: King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and his 300 face certain death from an invading Persian force led by an effeminate looking Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro). The Persians are unanimously depicted as weird and obscene, while the 300 are manly, courageous and never die. Really... they stack up mounds of dead like nothing else. So the script needs work, but no one really expected anything much from this story! Going in, we all know to expect fight, fight, time of desperation, hero turns it around, hero wins.

What we do not expect is the quality of the rest of it. The music is martial, the filmography is great and the action sequences well choreographed. Witness the first long shot of King Leonidas fighting. Bodies fly, the fight speeds up and slows down, more bodies fly, and yet there is grace in the shot. It's beautiful in a strange way... death on a battlefield is usually not graceful.

The other background to the story, which does not figure much in the movie, is that Sparta is a last holdout against the Persian Empire. Xerxes is figured a God, - as much as that means anything to people that are not his subjects yet - and the Spartan leadership aside from King Leonidas are wishywashy fools that do not want to fight. History proves them right... fighting was kind of futile for Sparta, but it is heroic and looks awesome on celluloid.

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The FX wizards did a great job making the fighting look completely real. The numerous hordes of the Persian army do look like numerous hordes, and the detail on the makeup is surprisingly high. The main baddies on the Persian side seem to be all warped and grotesque, and even Xerxes himself has rings up the wazoo. In return, the 300 look elaborately coiffed and oiled at all times. Even as the blood flows, they seem unspattered. And of course, the slogans.

Every five seconds, King Leonidas spouts another slogan to inspire his men. The whole movie is full of them. They could get annoying in any other movie, but here, you totally ignore the ridiculousness of it and just enjoy the R-rated bloodshed. You can let loose the inner couch potato and uncultered Neanderthal and say "I love 300!"

- Byron, Entertainment Reviewer for PanicShoppers.com.

300
Starring: Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Dominic West, David Wenham, Kelly Craig, Andrew Tiernan and Rodrigo Santoro
Directed by Zack Snyder
Release Date: 9 March 2007

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