300

I finally ended my movie embargo this weekend (first movie seen in the theater since Rocky Balboa) with a viewing of Frank Miller's 300. It seemed like a good choice, by the guy who created Sin City, about Spartan Warriors and lots of non stop action.

300 is about, you guessed it, 300 Spartan warriors who fight to fend off an attack from a much larger Persian army (historic estimates have it at about 300,000). The story follows King Leonadis' 300 men in non stop action. They slice and dice the enemies for two straight hours, only taking breaks for an uninteresting side story and to make wise cracks. The fighting is pretty awesome and really cool, but at some point it gives away to being kind of cheesy. In one scene an oncoming Persian Rhino is baring down on a Spartan solider with a spear. The solider throws the spear, kills the rhino that happens to come to a sliding halt with it's horns just inches away from the Spartan warrior. It was totally predictable, and would be cool if there were not already 20 other scenes like that. Yeah these Spartans are good, but no one is that good. We are also treated to a back story of Leonadis' wife, the Queen, pleading with the senate to send the Spartan army to his aide. The only reason this story, which never gets resolved, seems to be in the movie is to serve as a break in between action scenes. I think a better option would have been having a intermission screen, giving viewers time to go to the bathroom and get more popcorn.

Overall the movie is entertaining, it is two hours long but does not drag (except for the Queen scenes). The fighting starts soon, and the Persian army sends a bunch of cool looking bad guys the Spartans way. If you are in the mood for two hours of bashing, slashing, machismo then this is for you. This one is probably not for the girls.

Grade: B