That said, there's plenty of blood and gore for those who like that sort of thing, even if neat decapitations suggest that some of the soldiers must have been suffering badly from anaemia to begin with. There are some beautifully choreographed set pieces within the fight scenes but the overall effect is more humorous than horrifying.

They don't carry supplies (except for one mysterious apple) they don't rest or refresh their front line they break formation, undermining the whole point of a phalanx (which, amusingly, they pronounce like 'failings') they don't use their shields properly, and they could take a lesson from The Incredibles about cloaks.įortunately for them, they're up against Persian infantry with a habit of rushing forward and then waiting politely for the guys in front of them to get killed before stepping into the fray, waving their swords arbitrarily off to one side. Manly they may be, but its clumsy Spartans would get ripped to pieces in a real fight. And it's not a war movie, no matter what its creators may claim.

Historical accuracy is thrown to the wolves, but that was only to be expected. For what is essentially a string of fight scenes linked together by ridiculous narration and stretched over two hours, it does amazingly well, scarcely ever seeming to drag - which is, in the end, most of what one wants from an action movie. It's a surprisingly faithful adaptation of a bad comic but, like the comic, it's beautiful to look at and remarkably good at holding the attention.

To say that 300 is a bad film would be to miss the point. It's not at all clear that Zack Snyder understood this, and Frank Miller certainly didn't, but it works all the same - a great big slice of cheese, full of holes and extremely appetising.

Some things just don't work when they're flawless and neat. I guess customers were supposed to think they were getting more for their money, but any cheese lover will tell you that the holes add to the flavour. A few months ago, UK supermarkets started stocking a new form of Emmental cheese which didn't have any holes in.

300 spartans full movie 2006