'300' battles to the top of war movies

I've never really felt inclined to run around, brandishing a spear and shield while wearing a leather thong with a red cape and bellowing 'This is Sparta!' Then I saw '300.'

The movie is based on and closely follows the plotline of Frank Miller's graphic novel which loosely depicted the Battle of Thermopylae, where 300 Spartans battled an army of more than 1 million Persians. The Spartans are led by King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) who has refused to surrender to the Persian king, Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro).

Lacking the approval of the Greek counsel, Leonidas' decision to go to war casts doubt upon his decision and a victorious outcome. Having conquered most of Asia, Xerxes considers himself and his army impregnable because he believes that he has the support of the Gods and that he himself has achieved near god-like status. Leonidas is determined to prove both his Greek doubters and Xerxes wrong.

The battle scenes in '300' are nothing but awe-inspiring. Although the vast number of Persians seem intimidatingly excessive, the up-close camera angles make the battles intimate, as if the audience was among the combatants.

The special effects are well-produced, often making it difficult to discern whether the Spartans are appearing on an actual set or on a computer-generated landscape.

Both Butler and Santoro are excellent in their roles as leaders of their respective armies. Butler's Leonidas is a confident and calculating leader of his vastly outnumbered army, and Santoro's Xerxes is arrogant and unwavering as the leader of his powerful empire.

As a war movie, '300' certainly fulfills the violence quota, but at the same time the film isn't excessively bloody and gory. The blood-spattering effects are very comic-like, similar to those from 'Sin City,' Miller's other graphic-novel-turned-movie.

The effect of jumping from real-time to slow-motion is used effectively throughout the battle scenes, allowing the audience to almost feel the Spartan spears and swords as they pierce the Persian flesh. The soundtrack does a fantastic job of amplifying the mood, and not just during the battle scenes.

The only semi-obvious flaw in the movie is the overuse of the slow-motion effect. At times in the movie a non-battle scene will sporadically include the slow-motion effect. During such scenes, the effect does little more than literally slow the movie and leaving the audience wondering why it was necessary to have parts of that scene in slow-motion.

Otherwise, '300' leaves nothing to be desired. The story is so engrossing that it's easy to forget that you are watching the film in the theater, and aren't on the actual battlefield. The special effects are nearly-flawless, the costumes are elaborate and aesthetic, and the acting, despite the potential for shallow characters, is surprisingly good.

In the end, '300' is one of the greatest war movies of all time.