There's been just a wee bit of hype surrounding 300 lately. With the success of Sin City, everyone was scambling to be able to claim 'I liked Frank Miller before it was cool!' and, with the current wars, 300 must have been the natural next choice. As far as I can tell, it's fairly close to the comic (the terms 'comic' and 'graphic novel' are equal in my book...get over it) but that doesn't redeem it much. I know I may be surrendering my wang, but 300 just wasn't as good as it should've been.
Whatever reason you could have for watching 300, there is a better film out there.
If there's actually anyone who saw it because they really wanted to see realitic-ish Ancient-Greek fighting, I reckon Troy was heaps better, or even apparently the original The 300 Spartans.
If you just wanted a rousing battelcry of a film, one that makes you want to go and take a swing at the tall poppies or the state as soon as you leave the cinema, The Last Samurai, V for Vendetta, and Tears of the Sun (or practically any Bruce Willis film...that has a gun, ghosts don't count)
I imagine there were quite a few fans of the comic-book style of Sin City, who were expecting a similar film, just set about 2500 years prior. But even then, while it did have a unique (read 'fake') feel to it, it still fell short with V For Vendetta and The Crow and, of course Batman Begins leading the charge (I'd even include Road To Perdition in there despite a significantly realistic wash, it still flowed with more of the feel of a comic).
I presume, however, that the main reason people saw it was for the gore, which as you can tell by the logo was meant to be a pretty important character itself.But even then, there are so many films that have surpassed it; I'm thinking the Blade series, A History of Violence and, of course, Josie and the Pussycats.
There's also amazing inaccuracies, presumably taken from the comic such as African elephants, huge rhinoceroses, giants, Immortals who look very ninja-like, guys with swords for arms and black-African Persians! I figure it was a pretty ferocious army before CGI was invented didn't really need enhancement.
My final gripe, was contained in the climax, don't worry it's not a spoiler, we all know they all die, but the whole film, they've put up this heroic fight, allowing time for all the armies of Greece to move to engage the Persians, they all expose themselves only to die in a shower of arrows, despite, seconds before, being adequately protected in a formation we've already seen was impenetrable. They could've at least taken a few with them.
As far as pros, Gerard Butler was great, as were each of the 300 Spartans (with David Wenham narrating really well and Vincent Regan in his second Greek-captain role) and it showed the immensity of Xerxes' army that appeared on Greece's doorstep.
For some fun, have a look through the film's keyword list from IMDb.
