300

300

“…should any free soul come across that place, in all the countless centuries yet to be. May all our voices whisper to you from the ageless stones, "Go tell the Spartans, passerby, that here by Spartan law, we lie."—300

Action movies are known for the depth of special effects, and often ridiculed for having no plot other than the awesome stunts and flashy scenes, the movie 300 doesn’t stray from this stereotype on the stunts and flashy scenes end.  Action movie junkies flocked to this movie that for the promise of the amazing special effects that were inundated into the movie and were not left disappointed.

The movie is full of special effects from the very beginning, the colors in the movie have all been changed in order to change our emotions and range from bright clear beautiful days in a wheat field as the men march off to war, to dark stormy hurricane type conditions at night.  The film crew even changed the coloration of the actors themselves in order to cast shadows on their muscles in order to add definition as well as make them look more battle weary.  The film makers utilized computer generation and animation throughout the movie in order to create animals and scenes that would otherwise be impossible, such as a giant wolf in the opening scenes that is killed by a young boy.  They even changed human actors in order to make them look like “manimals”, such as the character Xerxes who was made to look as though he were about seven feet tall, and the monster that the “Immortals” unleash on the Spartans that has been enhanced from how he actually looks.  The movie uses lots of blood and dead bodies in the fighting scenes that are all special effects, and the towering cliffs overhead as well as the massive armies seen from overhead are computer generated as well.

All of the use of special effects comes off as very obvious, and while most average viewers may be put off by this, the target audience of action movie junkies come for this and would be disappointed without it.  The abundant use of the effects does enhance the movie for that reason, while it does not appeal to all, it does not try to.  The target audience wants these added effects in order to add to the action.  This movie comes off as being very professionally done, but from a new approach and direction than any other that I’ve seen.  While it is packed with action that is backed up by special effects, the special effects even is the whole storyline at times, the movie itself is enjoyable to watch and has a good story to add support to the action.

As this movie does not target all audiences with its special effects it does not deserve a five popcorn rating, but it does do an outstanding job of pleasing the audience it targeted, so I will give it three tubs of popcorn.