[attrition] review: Movie: 300

[lyger]

http://attrition.org/movies/300.html

300
(2007)
Czarina

I have to say that 300 was worth the wait... for the most part. Visually 
stunning, this movie, like its Frank Miller brethren, Sin City, is going 
to revolutionize the way that people make films based on comic books -- 
fusing comics and motion pictures into one seamless organism and ocular 
orgasm.

This film will have a profound impact on the genre as Terminator 2 and The 
Matrix did for action films and special effects. This film is set to 
become a cult classic, especially among the readers of the graphic novel 
and Frank Miller. Anyway, enough of my philosophy, and on with the review:

If you are not yet aware of the movie's plot, 300 is the cinematic 
adaptation of Miller's illustrated work based on the Battle of Thermopylae 
circa 480 B.C. This battle pitted 300 Spartans against the massive and 
seemingly indomitable forces of the Persian Empire, which was reaching the 
pinnacle of its power. The transvestite-looking, self-proclaimed God-King 
Xerxes (Rodrigo Santaro: Lost ) seeks to rule the world and needs the 
ancient City-State to facilitate his conquest of Greece and the rest of 
the Mediterranean. However Spartan King Leonidas (Gerard Butler: Dracula 
2000, Phantom of the Opera), will have none of that shit. Thunderous, 
fearless, and defiant, Leonidas is passionately committed to the 
sovereignty of his beloved Sparta, (as well as his own), and will not 
easily hand over his reign and submit to another, especially a Persian. 
After a Persian emissary (Pete Mensah) makes a proposal to Leonidas to 
hand over his crown (and become Xerxes' bitch), and insults his bold and 
beautiful queen (Lena Heady), Leonidas becomes bent on kicking Persian 
ass, beginning with the insolent messenger.

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