SHH! Reviews 300
One always hopes when a graphic novel is adapted from the page to the screen that it's done by someone who understands and appreciates the original source material. That's certainly the case with Zack Snyder, who understands the appeal of Frank Miller's words and visuals as well as Robert Rodriguez did when he co-directed „Sin City.“ While the finite story of „300“ might not be as strong an original work as Miller's „Sin City,“ it has the benefits of being a historic war epic, a genre that's thrived in cinema from „Ben Hur“ to „Gladiator“ and „Troy.“ Filtered through Frank Miller's warped imagination, it becomes a very different beast, though non-comic reading movie lovers might not find it nearly as foreign as „Sin City,“ „Hellboy“ or other graphic novel adaptations.
It takes some time for things to get going, as we're shown King Leonidas' rigorous upbringing as Sparta's warrior king and the events that lead to him declaring war on Persian king Xerxes' approaching army. After being warned by the Spartan council and the oracles that going to war would mean death, Leonidas decides he'll only need 300 men to fend off the advancing Persian hordes by stationing them strategically at a mountain impasse. Leonida and his men are indeed mighty and strong warriors, but they also have a cocky machismo that leads to their undoing when they underestimate a lowly hunchback named Ephialtes (Andrew Tiernan).
It's always puzzled me why a filmmaker might want to make their movie look like Frank Miller's artwork, since it's so extreme in style with very little basis in reality. Considering how stunning Snyder's film looks from beginning to end, it's obvious that there's something there. It doesn't take long to adjust to the muted color scheme used to recreate Lynn Varley's color scheme from the books, giving the movie a distinctive look of fire tones as the Spartan's bright red capes leap out at you from the yellow, orange and tan backgrounds. (The blend of real objects and computer-generated images is almost indiscernible.) Though it's obvious that Snyder is never truly going for realism, the cartoonish nature sometimes takes away from the experience, whether it's the cheesy-looking wolf Leonidas faces as a boy or the flawed make-up on Ephialtes and the giant Immortal, which look even worse when put through the film's coloring process.
Full review on ComingSoon.net
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