2 StarsDirected by Zach Snyder
Starring Gerard Butler, Lena Headly, David Wenham and Rodrigo Santoro

Slow-motion dismemberment and decapitations. Thunderous battle cries over blood-soaked sand. Beasts of Asia, monsters of men and a God-Emperor. In 300, the only thing more terrifying than these wonders is the mind-numbing excuse for a script.

300 is more-than-based on Frank Miller's powerful graphic novel by the same name, which recounts the legendary battle of Thermopylae between a Spartan king with his 300-strong bodyguard and the massed forces of the Persian empire. The fact that the movie is nearly a frame-for-frame, CGI-enhanced port of the novel, combined with Miller's close collaboration, is largely responsible for the movie's visually stunning content. It is starkly reminiscent of Sin City which was also based on graphic novels by Miller, which he co-directed

Miller's hand is also, unfortunately, responsible for the movie's nearly intolerable dialogue, taken directly from the pages of the novel. While short, bolded statements of straightforward ideas such as, "SLAY THEM" and "PUSH" are all that a graphic novel of 300's quality requires, a two-hour movie needs a little more padding to carry it along.

To address this problem, director and writer Zack Snyder unfortunately decided to add an entirely worthless subplot featuring the Spartan queen, played by Lena Headly, who is barely present in the graphic novel. Her efforts to make the film anything other than hordes of men chopping bits off one another (albeit in very entertaining ways) fall flat. The subplot is painfully obvious filler with no impact on the story and only serves to disrupt the momentum of the otherwise constant battle.

The battle alone, however, makes the movie stand out. The paltry number of stylized Spartan warriors, led by King Leonidas (Gerard Butler in all his Scottish glory), stand in crimson capes with bronze shields and bodies against vast, nightmarish hordes of Persian forces. The Persian emperor Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) oversees the battle, speaking with a resonant, nearly divine voice, trying to persuade Leonidas to bend to his diving power. Arrows, gunpowder grenades, spears and screams fill the screen as digitized blood sprays from horrendous wounds. This orgy of carnage is breathtaking and more artistic than the slightly-more-realistic depictions of ancient warfare found in movies like Troy.

Ultimately, fans of the graphic novel will enjoy 300 the way J. R. R. Tolkien fans enjoyed the Lord of the Rings adaptations. Seeing on the big screen vividly imagined battles previously constrained to comic-book frames is incredibly exciting to be sure, but suffering through added sequences and cringe-worthy dialogue almost counterbalances the rush.