300 (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition) (2007)

Rolling Stone
3 stars out of 4 -- "[Director Zack Snyder] keeps the action roaring....300 dazzles as spectacle..." 03/22/2007 p.90

Ultimate DVD
3 stars out of 5 -- "Everyone is loving 300 for perfectly valid reasons. It is a visual feast....The style exceeds mere competence and satisfies all promise." 03/01/2007 p.86

Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t looks incredible....Not real, not surreal, 300 is something else, a hyperreal realm where myth gasps to life." 05/01/2007 p.38

Box Office
"[W]ith a visual style that injects new energy into the sword-and-sandals epic." 05/01/2007 p.76

Sight and Sound
"[I]ts technical achievement is beyond question....The film's presentation of the cities and battlegrounds of ancient Greece can only be considered a marvel, vividly rendered through a digitised expressionist palette..." 05/01/2007 p.50

Entertainment Weekly
"Snyder uses every trick in the bloodletting playbook, and invents a few new ones, to stage one of history's greatest last stands." -- Grade: B 08/10/2007 p.53

Film Comment
"[I]t is less spectacle than blood rite in which history and myth almost literally bleed into each other." 01/01/2008 p.39

ReelViews 8 of 10
Whatever else 300 may be, it is destined to become beloved for a group of devotees. The size of that group will determine whether it achieves mainstream acceptance or attains cult status. Distilled to its essence, this is a graphic novel come to life - one of those rare instances in which filmmakers seek not merely to adapt a comic book but to interpret it for the screen. Both approaches are valid and have their strengths, but 300 would not be the experience it is had it not clung to the hyper-reality of the images of Frank Miller's graphic novel. From a visual standpoint, 300 (like Sin City before it) exists at a vertex where comic books and motion pictures intersect...300 is about heroism in the face of insurmountable odds. It is a masterpiece of images, style, and testosterone. An ode to masculinity and machismo, it captivates the eye and gets the blood pumping. It is heroic spectacle at its finest...Snyder has dug deep into his bag of tricks in order to make 300 into what it is. His approach is not unlike that of Sin City and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow...The pitch Snyder (Dawn of the Dead) used to secure financing is that 300 would change the way "sword and sandal" movies were made and viewed. To an extent, he is correct: 300 is unlike any movie to have previously reached the screen. Its larger-than-life characters, frenetic action sequences, lush visuals, and unabashed embrace of the over-the-top nature of comic books makes it something to be enjoyed in a way that is normally reserved for summer blockbusters. 300 may not offer masterful storytelling in a conventional sense, but it's hard to beat as a spectacle and that makes it worthwhile viewing for all but the most squeamish of potential audience members. - James Berardinelli
 
Eye Weekly 8 of 10
Like Miller's graphic novel, 300 relentlessly emphasizes the Spartan ideals of valour, glory and sacrifice. The movie's exaggerated machismo may beg for an ironic attitude as counterbalance but the material is played straight-faced save for Butler's few moments of cheek. Inevitably, 300's singularity of tone and purpose makes the later stages arduous to weather. Likewise, the initially gripping scenes of mayhem feel repetitious by the time of the umpteenth impalement, such that the more unexpected images -- a boy survivor walking out of a destroyed city, a barely clad teenage girl dancing out a message from the gods -- have the most resonance...The dudes will love it anyway. Dames will, too, though that may have less to do with Snyder's decision to enlarge the role of Leonidas' wife Gorgo (Lena Headey) than 300's smorgasbord of beefcake, one largely unparalleled outside the realms of gay porn and Chippendales revues. - Jason Anderson
 
Chicago Sun-Times 6 of 10
I gave a four-star rating to "Sin City," the 2005 film based on a graphic novel by Frank Miller. Now, as I deserve, I get "300," based on another work by Miller. Of the earlier film, I wrote prophetically: "This isn't an adaptation of a comic book, it's like a comic book brought to life and pumped with steroids." They must have been buying steroids wholesale for "300." Every single male character, including the hunchback, has the muscles of a finalist for Mr. Universe...Both films are faithful to Miller's plots and drawings. "300," I learn, reflects the book almost panel-by-panel. They lean so heavily on CGI that many shots are entirely computer-created. Why did I like the first, and dislike the second? Perhaps because of the subject matter, always a good place to start. "Sin City," directed by Robert Rodriguez and Miller, is film noir, my favorite genre, taken to the extreme. "300," directed by Zack Snyder, is ancient carnage, my least favorite genre, taken beyond the extreme. "Sin City" has vividly-conceived characters and stylized dialogue. "300" has one-dimensional caricatures who talk like professional wrestlers plugging their next feud..."Be afraid!" they rumble, stopping just short of adding, "Be very afraid." They talk about going on the "warpath," unaware that the phrase had not yet been coined by American Indians. Their women, like Gorgo (Lena Headey), queen of Leonidas, are as bloodthirsty as their men, just like wrestler's wives...All true enough. But my deepest objection to the movie is that it is so blood-soaked. When dialogue arrives to interrupt the carnage, it's like the seventh-inning stretch. In slow motion, blood and body parts spraying through the air, the movie shows dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands, of horrible deaths. This can get depressing. - Roger Ebert