Movie Review: The 300

Last night, my buddy BTC hooked me up and invited me to an advanced screening of the 300. Before everything else though -- a special thanks to BTC, whom I have known since he was a wee little freshman at Stern and I was the cool sophomore he looked up to. (Ok, ok, the only true part about that is that he was a freshman at Stern when I first met him, and I was a sophomore - but hey, it's my blog...).

Before I talk about the actual movie, I have to describe where the advanced screening was. It was at the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle here in New York, and after getting his name checked against the invite list, we took the elevator to the 10th floor. Once there, we went into this screening room, good for about 60-80 people, with regulation movie theater seats, but plush couches in the back. As you can expect, all the plush couches were taken already, but we still got pretty darn good seats, as it was a pretty intimate atmosphere.

Around 6:40, the movie started, and like BTC said, the only bad thing about these advanced screenings is that there were no Coming Attractions beforehand. I was going to add "And you couldn't bring food or drinks", but it wasn't that big a deal, really.

So on to the movie. For those unfamiliar with the plot, here it is:

”In the ancient Battle of Thermopylae, King Leonidas and 300 Spartans fought to the death against Xerxes and his massive Persian army. Facing insurmountable odds, their valor and sacrifice inspire all of Greece to unite against their Persian enemy, drawing a line in the sand for democracy”

I will now try to keep this as spoiler-free as much as possible, and just list some thoughts about it:

1) Gerard Butler plays King Leonidas, the film's protagonist and I was quite impressed with him. I've only seen him in the Phantom of the Opera movie, and I think I watched all of 25 minutes of that one. But he displayed some range in this one -- raging warrior, loving husband, good king, and it was pretty darn good.

2) Kudos also to Dominic West, who played Theron. As I am trying to keep it spoiler free, I won't talk much about him, except that little smirk he had every time he was on screen was perfect for his role. And, in a testament to how well he played his role, his final scene in the movie drew the biggest reaction from the crowd, and when you consider there was a lot of reaction just from the numerous fighting scenes, that says a lot.

3) If you are a history buff, or a stickler for realism, this is not for you. I mean, you have a Spartan king with a Scottish accent, that's all you need to know in that regard. And the Persians as villains - very comic book and I don't mean that as an insult, since a) you, all 2 or 3 of my readers, know I am a comic book fan even though I don't spend all my money on it anymore, unlike BTC and Sean. (And yes, I am jealous of them), and b) This was based on a graphic novel by Frank Miller. Some of you might find it hard to take the movie seriously because of the villains' comic book quality, especially Xerxes, but as long as you're aware of that and accept it, you'll be fine.

4) If you are a fan of action, then this is for you. I would say 80% of the movie was action. The plot? Predictable - but if you are watching this movie in the first place, I doubt it's because you thought the plot would be the second coming of Citizen Kane. I think it's a credit to the movie that even though I guessed what the plot twists were beforehand, I still enjoyed seeing them and the consequences it evoked.

5) If you are a fan of non-traditional film making, then this is for you. In the vein of Sin City and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, this was film work done mostly with blue screen and then the blanks were filled in later.

6) All in all, I enjoyed the film a lot. I would recommend it especially if you like a lot of action and don't mind a little violence.

The ErwiNation, on a scale of 8 Nations (in honor of the G8), gives it 5 Nations.

N.B., For the history buffs, here is the true story of Leonidas.