Much has already been written about this so I’m not going to give it the full review treatment. I’ve been looking forward to seeing it since the first news began trickling out way back. Now I have, and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s overlong, very silly in parts, woefully inaccurate historically but a magnificent cinematic spectacle for all that. Parts of the film are hauntingly beautiful and it’s never less than visually compelling. The acting varies wildly from superb (Gerard Butler’s Leonidas) to pantomime awful (Dominic West’s Theron) to just absurd (Rodrigo Santoro – what were they thinking??) and the decision to use David Wenham to narrate the film just doesn’t work. His toneless delivery almost had me dozing off at times. Some of Miller’s dialogue, which is ok in the context of a graphic novel, is risible when spoken aloud on film.
For all that, the film comes alive during the battle scenes which transform it from what could have been a laughable Steve Reeves style sword and sandal “epic” to a masterpiece of style. See it, and decide for yourself.