I just saw "300" with some friends at the local IMAX theater. In a nutshell, it’s what a blockbuster film should be: awe-inspiring and richly entertaining.
It’s primarily a war movie, and the film delivers action that is relentless, thrilling and hyper-stylized. I found the use of CGI and blue screen in the film nearly seamless, unlike other previous attempts like "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow"
which rang false from the first frame to the last. And many of the
tableaus in the film are stunning and quite beautiful. Clearly not everyone’s cup of tea, but for fans of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "Sin City" or "Troy," this is a must-see.
Some have quibbled about the historical inaccuracies of the film. I think that kind of misses the point.
Clearly the writers Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad and Michael Gordon (based upon the graphic novel by Frank Miller) did not intend to create a historically accurate portrayal of the battle of Thermopylae. Instead "300" is a mythically proportioned re-telling of the legend of Leonidas. Like all legends, the heroes are noble and true while the villains are conniving and treacherous. It’s told from the perspective of a storyteller recounting a tale to other Greeks, so embellishment and hyperbole are to be expected. Makes we wonder what Joseph Campbell would have made of the film.