300
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- Release Date: March 9, 2007
- Directed by: Zack Snyder
- Written by: Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad and Michael B. Gordon
- Runtime: 1 hour 57 minutes
- Series: 300
I'm just going to say this right up front: I'm a big fan of Zack Snyder's work as a director. He's pretty polarizing these days, especially after the work he did with the DC Extended Universe films. I'm sure I'll write more about those movies in time, but I tend to respect directors who make a vision all their own and dare to do things that aren't typical in the mainstream. I think his visual style is great for comic book adaptations. The way he uses slow-motion in the middle of an action scene not only adds a visual flare, but it provides great opportunities to adapt specific comic panels to a visual medium.
Based off of Frank Miller's graphic novel, this is a blood-soaked, hyper-stylized retelling of the ancient Battle of Thermopylae. I'm sure enough people have seen this movie at this point, so I won't go on too much about the plot. This is a movie that focuses almost entirely visual spectacle and getting your blood pumping. Most of the characters are hyper-masculine, bare-chested chiseled warriors who spend their screen time yelling their dialogue and running people through with swords and spears. The action is perfectly comic book-y, with arrows blocking out the sky, rhinos and elephants being used in battle, and the villainous Xerxes being an eight-foot-tall giant. Needless to say, if you're going into this expecting historical accuracy, prepare to be disappointed!
This is also a neat situation where, if you've read the graphic novel, then you've basically seen the movie. One thing I greatly appreciate in comic book adaptations is when the director adapts specific panels for shots and scenes, with bonus points if they use the actual dialogue from the pages. Zack Snyder chose to adapt 300 almost page for page, replicating almost the entire book onscreen. It's a lot like the approach that Robert Rodriguez took with Sin City, where he used the actual pages as storyboards for his shots. That means there is a lot of CGI / green screen work going on here, but it still looks fantastic to this day. If you like accurate comic-to-film translations, this is one you can't miss.
Before I end this, I have to thank this movie for birthing the THIS IS SPARTA remixes of late-2000s YouTube. That song still kicks ass all these years later!