Scan and Pan
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
300
Greece, 480 BCE. As the Persian armies advance on Greece, King Xerxes sends emissaries demanding tributes of "earth and water". Leonidas, King of the Spartans, refuses to offer tribute and kills the emissaries. Against the advice of Sparta's priests and oracle, Leonidas leads three hundred of his most elite warriors into battle at the pass of Thermopylae against tens of thousands of Persian soldiers.
Director Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead) creates an eye candy film which has some of the most jaw-dropping, eye-popping imagery since Lord of the Rings. However, it's far too stylized for its own good. Where LotR director Peter Jackson took a fictional world and made it look real, Snyder takes the real world and makes it look artificial.
The film is based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller (Sin City), and the screenplay by Snyder, Kurt Johnstad, and Michael B. Gordon is faithful to the to the source material, serving up an overblown story and cardboard characters. Not once did I feel engaged by any of the characters or moved by their fates, nor did anything in the story reach out and demand my attention. There's a good story waiting to be told about the Battle of Thermopylae, but you won't find it here.
The film could have easily been written by Karl Rove, it's so much of a conservative propaganda piece with the central theme being allegedly civilized white people versus dark skinned barbarians from the East. The Persians in this film are no different than the zombies in Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, mindless killing machines without any spark of humanity, while the Spartans are idealized beyond any semblance of reality. If you're dark skinned, physically disabled, or a somewhat effeminate man, then you're one of the evildoers in the world of 300.
The cast generally doesn't act as much as it postures like professional wrestlers in an amateur Shakespearean production. Gerard Butler's Leonidas never met a line of dialog that could be delivered without bellowing in a gruff voice, which quickly grows tiresome (also, dude, lose the Scottish accent when portraying an ancient Greek). Dominic West was the only really good actor in Hannibal Rising, but here he's completely over the top as Theron, a devious Spartan politician with an agenda. Vincent Regan fares better as Leonidas' captain, especially in the scenes after his son is killed. Rodrigo Santoro is physically impressive as Xerxes. Lena Headey is wooden as Queen Gorgo, while model Kelly Craig is appropriately beautiful and mysterious as the oracle (really, all she has to do is dance naked and mumble). As for the Spartan warriors, there's so much macho posturing that one wonders if it's supposed to be a parody.
With more than 1,500 visual effects shots, the real stars of 300 are cinematographer Larry Fong (Lost), production designer James D. Bissell (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, The Rocketeer), and costume designer Michael Wilkinson (American Splendor, Babel), who create an intensely visual world, realized by shooting actors against blue screens and adding the digital backgrounds in post-production. It's like watching a series of beautiful paintings in quick succession.
As breathtaking as the imagery is at times, 300 is woefully lacking as a dramatic work. It represents the worst excesses of Hollywood style over substance in a single film, hammering away at you until you feel completely benumbed. I don't mind an eye candy action film as long as it can muster some entertainment value, but this film can't even manage that. Not recommended.
"Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing" is a phrase that was seemingly invented to describe this overhyped but underwhelming film.
Greece, 480 BCE. As the Persian armies advance on Greece, King Xerxes sends emissaries demanding tributes of "earth and water". Leonidas, King of the Spartans, refuses to offer tribute and kills the emissaries. Against the advice of Sparta's priests and oracle, Leonidas leads three hundred of his most elite warriors into battle at the pass of Thermopylae against tens of thousands of Persian soldiers.
Director Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead) creates an eye candy film which has some of the most jaw-dropping, eye-popping imagery since Lord of the Rings. However, it's far too stylized for its own good. Where LotR director Peter Jackson took a fictional world and made it look real, Snyder takes the real world and makes it look artificial.
The film is based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller (Sin City), and the screenplay by Snyder, Kurt Johnstad, and Michael B. Gordon is faithful to the to the source material, serving up an overblown story and cardboard characters. Not once did I feel engaged by any of the characters or moved by their fates, nor did anything in the story reach out and demand my attention. There's a good story waiting to be told about the Battle of Thermopylae, but you won't find it here.
The film could have easily been written by Karl Rove, it's so much of a conservative propaganda piece with the central theme being allegedly civilized white people versus dark skinned barbarians from the East. The Persians in this film are no different than the zombies in Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, mindless killing machines without any spark of humanity, while the Spartans are idealized beyond any semblance of reality. If you're dark skinned, physically disabled, or a somewhat effeminate man, then you're one of the evildoers in the world of 300.
The cast generally doesn't act as much as it postures like professional wrestlers in an amateur Shakespearean production. Gerard Butler's Leonidas never met a line of dialog that could be delivered without bellowing in a gruff voice, which quickly grows tiresome (also, dude, lose the Scottish accent when portraying an ancient Greek). Dominic West was the only really good actor in Hannibal Rising, but here he's completely over the top as Theron, a devious Spartan politician with an agenda. Vincent Regan fares better as Leonidas' captain, especially in the scenes after his son is killed. Rodrigo Santoro is physically impressive as Xerxes. Lena Headey is wooden as Queen Gorgo, while model Kelly Craig is appropriately beautiful and mysterious as the oracle (really, all she has to do is dance naked and mumble). As for the Spartan warriors, there's so much macho posturing that one wonders if it's supposed to be a parody.
With more than 1,500 visual effects shots, the real stars of 300 are cinematographer Larry Fong (Lost), production designer James D. Bissell (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, The Rocketeer), and costume designer Michael Wilkinson (American Splendor, Babel), who create an intensely visual world, realized by shooting actors against blue screens and adding the digital backgrounds in post-production. It's like watching a series of beautiful paintings in quick succession.
As breathtaking as the imagery is at times, 300 is woefully lacking as a dramatic work. It represents the worst excesses of Hollywood style over substance in a single film, hammering away at you until you feel completely benumbed. I don't mind an eye candy action film as long as it can muster some entertainment value, but this film can't even manage that. Not recommended.
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