Mar 22, 2007 01:54 PM
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(Updated Mar 22, 2007 01:57 PM)
300- the name in itself is unconventional, and considering the story a very obvious choice. 300 as the name and subtitles suggest is story of 300 Spartan warriors facing a army of a million from Persia.300-is a very visually stylized adaptation of the graphic novel also titled "300" by Frank Miller. The graphic novel tells the story of Battle of The rmopylae where a army of 300 Spartans had held up a army of Xerxes which came to conquer their land. They held up enough for the Spartan navy to arrive and beat Xerxes to the retreat.The first thing that strikes you about the movie is the stunning visual imagery, composition of each shot, each frame is just so beautiful.
The power of CG is at the fullest, what with only one of the scenes in the movie being actually shot outdoors. Be it stunning landscapes or the grotesque battle sequences, everything is done with total honesty to the comic book genre. The picturization is not a very real one but has the element of fantasy to it. Characters are made larger to life and their dialogues out of a story board. And considering that was what the makers set out to do, they have achieved to the fullest.The movie opens with sequences which are meant to establish the credentials of an Spartan warrior. Each of the one hand picked and the deformed and diseased eliminated.
Every child is made to go through an initiation in to pain and endurance. All this to create the ultimate war machines that the Spartans claim to be.The story follows the travails of the Spartan King Leonidus, a man of virtue and honour who stands up to protect his nation as the rest of it is embroiled in corruption. He sets out with 300 of the finest warriors in Sparta against the wishes of the Counsel to protect his nation, knowing fully the might of the self proclaimed god Xerxes.What follows is a blood smattering, torso piercing war sequences, although grotesque in depiction shot with with a certain sense of aesthetics.
You see people being beheaded, legs chopped off and hordes of Persian warriors assembled by Xerxes from across Asia turning into heaps of dead bodies. Its all in your face... with little left to the imagination.What unravels further is a nothing unexpected, as seen many American war movies... guts, pain, endurance and glory. But what strikes you is the way it gets told on screen.The director Zack Snyder has recreated the war sequences using CG as well if not better than many Hollywood movies before made with budgets many folds of this movie.
Just for the trivia this movie was made at around 1/5 the budget of Spiderman!!!.People like me who would like a good war movie would like this movie and the people who do not like seeing limbs severed better stay away. Overall this is quite a entertaining movie which doesn't leave you unsatisfied.
