300

300, Zack Snyder’s rigidly loyal adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel of the same name, comes with its own inherent hurdles and setbacks. In many ways, it is a visionary film but it also feels as though it is perpetually channeling some else’s vision (mainly Miller’s). There’s a forceful sense that the whole production, an epic of arduously planned out style and tone, lacks a life of its own. This conundrum plagues some of 300, but ultimately loses credence as the film reveals its own ruthless passion and escapes the prison of perfected style that diminishes its opening moments. Somewhere amid a sea of corpses, it finds the sort of misplaced humanity that can make something as ceremoniously vulgar as this come alive. For quite some time it seems that this is merely a lifeless testament to just how cool it can be to slaughter thousands, but there’s a strange morally puritanical core that confused yet fascinated me.

Gerard Butler growls somewhat obnoxiously through the role of Leonidas, the legendary Spartan king. His battle is to be waged against Xerxes, (Rodrigo Santoro) the Persian emperor claiming to be a god amongst mortals. Xerxes offers the Spartans a submissive role in the Persian Empire, but in the process offends Spartan pride. Submission and in particularly kneeling seem to be behaviors Spartans are willing to die to avoid. On the surface, we are told it is because Xerxes is a cruel tyrant and a coward, but subtextually he is also an object of distaste because he is unconventional, effeminate, ethnic, and associates with disfigured humans. In short, he is the leader of outcasts and therefore must be slaughtered by conservative macho white men. Attacking political or social overtones seems sort of pointless in this arena, though, since the film appears mostly designed to elicit yelps of glee from young males thirsty for hypothetical blood splatter.

However low brow the reception might be, this is definitely a visually if not conceptually ambitious film. Snyder creates a painterly CGI background of lush, darkly beautiful atmosphere that brings a fresh look to this ancient story. This is not a traditional action film nor a traditional swords and sandals epic. It is a modernist melding of both genres more akin to visually lucid fantasy flicks like The Matrix than old fashioned battle films. The core battle scenes are rendered in manic, speed changing visuals that capture a strangely beautiful aspect to the choreography of slaughter. It’s somewhat of a bloody ballet of swords, spears, and obscenely muscled warriors. There’s some redundancy in the constant fight scenes and some stiffness in attempts to create authentically dramatic characters, but for the most part this film delivers some of the most interesting battle photography in years and unleashes its own, twisted yet compelling convictions on its audience. It’s about more than just looking cool, but it certainly does that best of all.

Grade: B+