365 Days. 365 Films.

300 follows a Spartan king and his battle against the Persians with his army of 300. The film is made to look similar to the graphic novel on which it is based and as far as the style goes it is brilliant.
This was a film that I apparently absolutely had to watch, and when I saw the trailer upon the films release I did think the same. When I watched it, however, I suddenly didn’t understand the hype! I think the best bits are certainly in the trailer, and once you’ve watched that, the rest of the film is just an extension to it. Yes the cinematography and mise-en-scene are amazing and beautiful to watch, but it’s not exactly original and never-been-done-before. It’s a brilliant film, don’t get me wrong, just not as good as a lot of people made it out to be. One flaw I would pick out is that a lot of techniques are overused and disguised as new ones, and with a film like this it’s easy to assume it’s a wonderful piece of artistic cinema, but the technical ability of Snyder is clearly limited upon a second or third viewing, and flaunting certain techniques as he does distracts from the overall storyline which could have easily been more emotive.

This post will probably make a lot of people angry because I know it’s the kind of film that, if you love it, you really do love it. Great film – but not THAT great…