Rating: 4 out of 5
Movie Experience: DT Cinemas
Remember J.P Dutta’s Border, the movie based on the Battle of Longewala where a battalion of 120 soldiers held back a 3000 troop strong Pakistani force. The stiff resistance of those 120 troops delayed the pakistani assault till dawn, thereby allowing the Indian Air Force to come in and annihilate the pakistani army.
Zack Snyder’s 300, adapted directly from Frank Miller’s comic novel of the same name is somewhat similar. Only this time instead of 120 there are 300 soldiers who hold back atleast 100,000 persian mercenaries. So history does repeat itself, as is evident from the comparision above.
300 is a story about the Battle of Thermopylae and the persian invasion of Greece under Xerxes 1. Xerxes desiring to expand his empire across the whole of europe, asks the greek countries and kingdoms to surrender but his offer is refused by Sparta and it’s King Leonidas. Enraged by the refusal and the killing of his messengers Xerxes invades greece during their festival period with his massive army. Leonidas unable to gather support from his parliament to fight the persians, sets of alone with 300 of his finest soldiers to fight a battle he knows he can’t win. Leonidas and his men hold back the persians for 3 days and inflict heavy losses but are defeated due to treachery on the part of a fellow spartan. The extraordinary courage shown by the king and his men, inspires the whole of greece to come together and defeat the mighty persian army.
300 is a one of it’s kind movie, where computer animation and graphics have been extensively been used to give it a comic book feel. The film was completely shot indoors on blue screen and everything that you see on screen is computer animation. Here’s an example, the picture on top is what was shot and at the bottom is what you would see.
Although this attempt does manage to create a surreal effect, but it is also the minus point of the film as a keen observer can easily make out that everything that he sees is fake. Besides that, 300 is great movie to watch provided you don’t mind seeing bloodshed, human carcasses, decapitation and sliced heads flying in the air. Like most hollywood films the acting is exemplary, and Gerard Miller does a brillant job as King Leonidas. The fight sequences are brillantly executed and the movie is well paced out too.
All in all a must watch and great entertainment.