Looks can definitely be deceiving.
Take for example, the film "Primeval" from earlier this year. Advertised as a gritty film about a serial killer named Gustave, fans were disappointed to find out Gustave is a crocodile and "Primeval" is a creature-feature.
Now take Zack Snyder's "300." Advertised as a gritty, stylish, adrenaline-pumping action movie, it looked to have popcorn flick written all over it. Unfortunately for moviegoers, it's a silly, melodramatic snorefest.
"300" is already a top contender for the most disappointing film of 2007.
Where's Gustave when you need him?
Everybody knows the story; 300 Spartans lead by King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) battle Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his thousands of Persian soldiers at the Battle of Thermopylae. This could be the basis for a good plot, but it doesn't take "300" long to turn into nothing more than a series of action-movie cliches.
There's a subplot involving Queen Gorgo's (Lena Headey) attempts to have reinforcements sent to her husband's aid, but it really just acts as a distraction from people yelling "This is Sparta!" throughout the film.
The biggest problem with "300" is that it doesn't know what kind of movie it wants to be, which is no doubt the source material's fault. It would have worked better as a serious drama or a full-on silly action movie, rather than trying to fuse the two. It's really hard to take the film seriously when one villain looks like the lovechild of Jabba the Hutt and one of the crab people from South Park.
Most people will obviously see "300" for its stylish visuals and while it does look nice, there are more than a few visible cracks in the paint. This is most evident during the action sequences, where the viewer is treated to awful-looking CGI gore. No matter how advanced technology has become, a corn-syrup mix still achieves better results than computer software any day.
Even the battles themselves feel like they were shot and edited by someone with ADHD, as the camera continually speeds up and slows down to the point where it just gets repetitive.
Unfortunately, in the end "300" is just a silly, yet melodramatic, cliched, comic-book version of "Gladiator" with Frank Miller art direction.
What a shame.
(This film is rated 18-A)
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