300 - One Minute Review
5 Comments Published by Prasad Venkat on Wednesday, April 11, 2007 at 4:35 PM.
'300' is a video game that you can't play. And that too a game with a mediocre storyline, under-developed characters, flashy photography, sub-par special effects, directorial glitches all on top of historical inaccuracies that the producers would well excuse themselves saying that they have blended a good amount of mythology into the screenplay. Spartan king Leonidas with a paltry army of finely trained 300 soldiers take on the massive Persian army at the Thermopylae pass. While eventually they lose, these 300 soldiers withstand the heavy onslaught of Xerxes in protecting the narrow cliff through which they have to pass, which buys enough time for the Greeks to gather themselves.
The story-telling is colossally fractured - the viewer is kept in dark about the history, geography & politics that lead up to the war. And once the battle begins, we witness some cool action scenes, but soon the sheen wanes off and the hunger for some good story overtakes the bombarding visual food. The rapid/slow/quasi-motion combat shots where heads are cut and drops of blood are strewn across become boring after some time. A couple of nude scenes are shamelessly spliced in. Director Zack Snyder comes from a music video background and it's very clear from his treatment of material where substance is relegated for style. The editor has clumsily combined battle scenes with manufactured momentum and an amateur political drama that unfolds in the heart of Sparta. This is disposable entertainment, with an emphasis on disposable.
The story-telling is colossally fractured - the viewer is kept in dark about the history, geography & politics that lead up to the war. And once the battle begins, we witness some cool action scenes, but soon the sheen wanes off and the hunger for some good story overtakes the bombarding visual food. The rapid/slow/quasi-motion combat shots where heads are cut and drops of blood are strewn across become boring after some time. A couple of nude scenes are shamelessly spliced in. Director Zack Snyder comes from a music video background and it's very clear from his treatment of material where substance is relegated for style. The editor has clumsily combined battle scenes with manufactured momentum and an amateur political drama that unfolds in the heart of Sparta. This is disposable entertainment, with an emphasis on disposable.
Labels: 300, Leonidas, Thermopylae, Xerxes
