Ignoring the warnings of his city-state’s oracle, King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) assembles a force of three hundred Spartan warriors and leads them into battle against the Persian ruler Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), whose army numbers in the thousands. Leonidas, who has repeatedly scoffed at the offer to lay down his arms and become a subject of the Persian Empire, hopes to trap the invaders in the narrow mountain passageway of Thermopylae, believing the cramped space will even out the odds.

CRITIQUE

As everyone and his grandmother already knows, director Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Frank Miller and Lynn Varley’s comic series uses a huge bag of visual trickery to as closely approximate the look of the comic as is possible. Much like Robert Rodriguez did with Miller’s Sin City, Snyder and his crew built minimalist sets, shot the actors in front a series of bluecsreens, and then used extensive CGI to replace the bluescreens with locales, teeming hordes, horizons, creatures, what-have-you.

Moreover, a post-processing technique its creators dubbed “the crush” was applied to drain color from the image, replace said color with burnished golden hues, and then pump up the contrast between these hues and the surrounding blacks, which resulted in a look that closely resembles the color scheme Varley (Miller’s ex-wife and longtime colorist) employed in the comics.

It may seem like a been-there-done-that stunt, but as Rodriguez had previously realized, the worlds Miller creates in his books are generally so stylized in terms of character and setting that to present them any other way would almost be out of the question. And while I admit there are times when such an approach creates as many problems as it does opportunities, if the finished product is this good, I’m more than willing to take the bad with the good.   

Sin City is, in its own singular way, often so arch and florid that it seems to be as much a parody of hard boiled conventions as it is a celebration of them. 300 takes a similar approach in telling this historical tale; Miller boiled the story down to its essence, and then populated it with Spartans so heroic they border on caricature, and Persian villains so ridiculously decadent and evil they go beyond caricature (a move that renders moot the cries of racism that greeted both the comic and the movie).

If Sin City is Dashiell Hammett on crack, then 300 is a ‘50s sword-and-sandal epic after a long regimen of protein shakes and Human Growth Hormone. It’s boisterous, bombastic, and bloody, with little regard for historical accuracy or realism. But on its own terms it’s a rather astonishing piece of work. I didn’t learn anything new about the conflict, and I certainly never became invested in the lives of any of the characters (although given that the fate of the individual here is second to that of the city-state, perhaps that’s intentional), but it never failed to entertain me.

Yes, the movie does get a bit repetitive at times, both in terms of story and storytelling (there’s really only so much you can do with competing forces fighting along a narrow cliff), and there are times when the almost slavish devotion to the source material handcuffs Snyder as a director (you can often see him straining too hard to work in one of Miller’s more recognizable images).

But I think the movie only totally missteps in the political intrigue subplot involving Leonidas’ wife, Queen Gorgo (Lena Heady), and a Spartan councilman named Theron (Dominic West). These scenes--which, not surprisingly, didn’t appear in the original comic--not only ring false and seem out of place within the larger story, but Gorgo’s actions seem completely out of character. And this subplot also drags the pacing down a bit and unnecessarily lengthens a movie that already could have used a few judicious trims.

THE VIDEO

This film’s 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is undoubtedly going to cause much debate among A/V enthusiasts. As I mentioned, the image has been drained of most of its color, and what little color remains consists primarily of golds and sepia tones. Depth can often be a little lacking, and both detail and deep blacks have been weakened by the crush process and the cranked contrast. But this is exactly the way the movie is supposed to look; taking that into consideration, the transfer here is an excellent representation of what Snyder intended. Optional subtitles are available for English, Spanish and French.

THE AUDIO

I don’t think the audio will stir much debate; the English Dolby Digital 5.1 track included here is loud and bolstering, yet no aspect of the meticulously crafted sound design is overshadowed. Dialogue, even when spoken in hushed tones, is always intelligible. There’s also a good amount of deep bass action to bring the cops to your front door, and surround action is integrated into the soundstage. Additional soundtracks include Spanish and French 5.1 dub tracks.

THE EXTRAS

Here's what's new to this Limited Collector's Edition:

To the Hot Gates: A Legend Retold (30 minutes) is an all-new documentary (found on Bonus/Disc 3) that covers the entire span of the film's production -- from pre-production, set design and filming to the special effects wizardry and recollections -- through over a dozen interviews, plenty of BTS footage and occasional photographs.

A Digital Copy of the film (theatrical version) is included on the bonus disc for portable media players or your hard drive.

Furthermore, the set includes a neat set of three collectible items; they are:

A 52-page Hardcover Art & Photo Book that is simply amazing. The amount of detail in the imagery and its information is very welcoming, as is the personal message from director Zack Snyder reproduced within.

Next you'll get a Lucite Display with Motion Film Image that's sure to excite collectors.

Also included are 6 cool Collectible Photo Cards from the film's poster campaign.

Finally, the Limited Edition also carries over all of the content from the 2-disc edition:

The commentary by director Zack Snyder, co-writer Kurt Johnstad, and director of photography Larry Fong is, as you might expect, heavy on technical info and light on discussions of story and character.

300: Fact or Fiction? (25 minutes) features Snyder, Miller, and several historians discussing the historical accuracy (and/or lack thereof) of both this movie and other Hollywood takes on the Battle of Thermopylae.

The Frank Miller Tapes (15 minutes) includes interviews with Miller, artist Neal Adams, and DC Comics honchos Paul Levitz and Bob Schreck, who chart the course of Miller’s career.

Who Were the Spartans? (6 minutes) has the lead actors discussing the historical counterparts to their characters.

Making 300 (6 minutes) is an EPK-style behind-the-scenes featurette.

Making 300 in Images (4 minutes) is a gallery of production photos.

Preparing for Battle: The Test Footage (6 minutes) is a demo reel Snyder and the producers created in order to pitch the project to Warner Bros. It features a combination of animatics-style footage created from scans of the comic and narration by actor Scott Glenn to provide an encapsulation of what Snyder and his team had in mind.   

Three deleted scenes (7 minutes total) are presented in not-quite-finished form. Snyder provides intro for each and explains why they were cut. (One was cut because Snyder felt it went too far over the top; given the tone of this movie, cutting a scene for being too over the top is a little like cutting a scene from a porn flick because it contains too much nudity.)

Twelve Webisodes (30 minutes total) are also included. These are short behind-the-scenes featurettes created for the movie’s official website and cover such topics as stunts, costumes, and casting.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It’s historically dubious, gloriously over the top, and stylized to the point of absurdity, but all of this adds up to make 300 one of the most unabashedly entertaining pieces of moviemaking you’ll encounter this year. Couple that with some fine extras and an outstanding technical presentation and you have what will almost certainly end up being one of this year’s coolest holiday gift ideas.