by Bryan Greifinger

Created on: March 16, 2007   Last Updated: January 11, 2010

This movie screams to us to compare various aspects of it with movies such as The Last Samurai, Troy, & Gladiator. Truly grade A movies. Why? Because they enable us to easily emote our way through them from beginning to end. By allowing us to put ourselves in the same places as many of the lead characters. With their vivid scenes and dialogue these movies help us to connect the dots between what we see to what we feel. We can easily recall the scenes that made us feel so tearful and so proud.

300 on the other hand lacks this continuity and focus. It does it in at least 3 different ways. First, it gives us a poorly matched score. It gives us headachy rock music that doesn't come close to the feel of the previously mentioned movies. It doesn't inspire. It makes us refocus our attentions elsewhere.

Second, it gives us overdone narration that "tells" instead of letting us "see". This is a visual medium not a radio show. These characters are intelligent not unknowing like in Conan the Barbarian. The characters should be more than sufficient to tell the story. To do otherwise cheapens the experience.

On a more positive note, this movie has some very satisfying cinematography. There was a bit of a feeling of the Matrix and me thinking, am I in the right theatre watching the correct movie? Surely nothing original in the slow motion effects. But the lighting is in part what initially drew me to the movie with hopes that I'd be viewing something above the ordinary.

Last of all, in the Last Samurai and Gladiator there is much more complexity to the main characters. The love between the Capt and the Asian boy and his mother are seen much more vividly than that of the lead character in 300 and his son. Leonidas' son has no input to aid the connection. Only thru the narrator do we get any real input. And what does this SHOW us?

The theme of 300 goes a long way towards giving the movie goer a good deal for their money. But the implementation of the story makes the watcher fight a bit to hard to get the maximum impact from its glorious theme.

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