The best way 300 can be described in a single sentence is 'The Lord of The Rings' filmed in the style of 'The Matrix.' It is a fantasy of epic proportions.
Reading some of the comments other users have left, many cite the film as being "pretentious", "offensive" and "badly directed", though I believe these people are wildly mislead.
The direction of the film is fantastic, capturing every essence of the brutally artistic vision of Frank Miller's comic. The fight scenes in particular are simply brilliant, full of adrenaline and beautifully filmed.
The cast, with a refreshing absence of Americans features not a single poor performance. Gerard Butler, the protagonist, has a particularly strong performance, belting out some quite fantastic one-liners, "We're in for one wild night." Some criticise the film for its portrayal of the Persians and the beasts used thereof, such as a Rhino and an Elephant, neither of which look anything like the real thing. What one has to remember is this film is seen through the eyes of the Spartans and not having seen these animals before, would have been incredibly frightening, the same with the representation of the Persians. Call it artistic license. And as for historical accuracy, this film does not even pretend to be so, this can be testified for by the lack of real information by the narrator. It is after all based on a comic-book.
Overall this film is easily one of the best fantasy epics of the last decade, if not THE best. It is difficult to fault to be honest, but I do feel that there is not enough background about some of the other more prominent of the 300, but that hardly detracts from the overall sheer brilliance of the film.
Absolute brilliance - 9/10
Reading some of the comments other users have left, many cite the film as being "pretentious", "offensive" and "badly directed", though I believe these people are wildly mislead.
The direction of the film is fantastic, capturing every essence of the brutally artistic vision of Frank Miller's comic. The fight scenes in particular are simply brilliant, full of adrenaline and beautifully filmed.
The cast, with a refreshing absence of Americans features not a single poor performance. Gerard Butler, the protagonist, has a particularly strong performance, belting out some quite fantastic one-liners, "We're in for one wild night." Some criticise the film for its portrayal of the Persians and the beasts used thereof, such as a Rhino and an Elephant, neither of which look anything like the real thing. What one has to remember is this film is seen through the eyes of the Spartans and not having seen these animals before, would have been incredibly frightening, the same with the representation of the Persians. Call it artistic license. And as for historical accuracy, this film does not even pretend to be so, this can be testified for by the lack of real information by the narrator. It is after all based on a comic-book.
Overall this film is easily one of the best fantasy epics of the last decade, if not THE best. It is difficult to fault to be honest, but I do feel that there is not enough background about some of the other more prominent of the 300, but that hardly detracts from the overall sheer brilliance of the film.
Absolute brilliance - 9/10