Thursday 12 January 2012

300

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Year:2006
Country of origin:USA
Director:Zack Snyder
Genre:Fantasy battle epic
Starring:Gerard Butler, Dominic West, Lena Headey, Vincent Regan, Rodrigo Santoro
Rating:5/5
IMDB link:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416449/
Tagline:Spartans, tonight, we dine in hell!
Favourite line:"Immortals? We put their name to the test."

The best fantasy, swords and sandals, homoerotic, CGI, action, battle movie you’re likely to see?
Almost certainly.
Based on a series of comics of the same name by the legendary Frank Miller, this is to historical epics what Sin City is to film noir.
Inspired by the infamous tale of 300 Spartans holding back a mighty Persian army, this is more fiction than fact, containing a strong fantasy element that may come as surprise.
The plot is redundant, so don’t worry about it and, sure, the characterisations are two dimensional, but this is not about great writing, simply bloodshed and utter, destructive mayhem.
One of the most bloodthirsty ‘mainstream’ movies I have ever seen, this stylises the violence massively so that, at times – in keeping with the source material – it is cartoonish, whilst at the same time borrowing liberally from The Matrix along the way. Slow-motion slice and dice sequences are sprinkled into the battle scenes, and there is heavy use made of CGI, though for once this merely serves to enhance the experience, not detract from it.
Huge battle sequences go on for minutes at a time, but not once do you get bored and, cleverly, the blood factor increases as the movie progresses. In the first battle, there is next to no blood drawn, but by the climax arms, heads and legs are being lopped off at will, gurgling parabolas of blood arcing at the screen with gay abandon.
Visually sumptuous in terms of costume, sets and backgrounds, this sits somewhere between the world of cinema and the world of gaming as, clearly, the events portrayed are totally unrealistic, but no less compelling as a result.
A superb movie, and all the more staggering as the same man also directed Sucker Punch, possibly 2011’s worst film.
Rollicking good stuff, then.

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