300
I've had trouble talking with people about this movie because it seems to be one of those very dividing love or hate type movies, although for me when I put the good and bad parts together I think it's just about average.
The visuals were stunning yes. The action sequence depicted in exciting ways never before seen.
Most everything else was crummy. The acting, dialogue, plot, you know those other things. As for the acting I guess you can't expect much. When you have a such a stringent requirement that all of your actors have to be so perfectly physically buff, you can't be too picky on other skills like acting ability. But actually the lead female was the worst for some reason and not that attractive to me either, so I don't know what happened there. As for dialogue and plot though I just don't know what happened.
I suppose the general public (and I'll include myself in that group this time) was introduced to the name Frank Miller though Sin City. That movie had the amazing visuals but with fantastic acting, a varied cast of extremely interesting characters, and some really exciting dialogue and little bits of plot. I was first informed of 300 by my friend Adam, who had recently and coincidentally already been interested in the same story about the Spartans, but I think he was infatuated with the visuals in the movie trailer and associating what he thought about Frank Miller from Sin City believed the other elements would be as good. Adam may have ended up being the person I know who hates this movie the most now.
I never actually planned on watching this movie in the theater, but my friend Patrick wanted me to go. He ended up loving it even though I think he recognized as much as I did how thin the acting and plot and themes were. My friend Andy also likes it quite a bit because he said it was one of those movies you have to be expecting to like it just for the visuals. Well I just can't get into that mood that people talk about, even if I hadn't expected it to up to the caliber of Sin City I don't think I would have liked it any more. I can't have stylized violence for it's own sake. Even if it's just a straight up genre piece, it has to be presented properly.
And I was also upset when they showed that fat Persian man/creature with both of his forearms replaced by giant jagged blades and then never brought him into an action scene to actually fight.
Again though, the action sequences really are stunning. And even though if the other elements had been there this could have been much better, it's still a mildly fun time.
Rating: 7/10