As you might’ve heard, there’s a battle in 300. But besides the obvious one between the handful of mostly-naked Spartan beefcake and the invading Persian army of darkness, there’s a more subtle battle. And for this behind-the-scenes struggle, the outcome looks just as grim as it does for our lads in leather.
Well, this second battle isn’t exactly behind the scenes, it is the scenes. It’s a pitched fight for the audience’s attention, torn between the film’s (gleefully distorted) historical subject and the drugged-out CG phantasmagoria of otherworldly beasts and freeze-framing geysers of blood.
Between the striking red and earth-toned visual tapestry of ripped men and rugged landscapes that dominates the screen throughout the film’s 117-minute run time, the human actors go to superhuman lengths just to get noticed amid the overpowering CGI circus.
The actors stress every line of dialogue to the breaking point, clench every muscle till your neck starts to spasm in sympathy, and roar till they drop to compete against the superior forces of the film’s animators.
Acting an entire film against a green screen is hard enough. But to do so knowing that your unseen opponents include the best graphics computers money can buy is probably too much of an uphill battle for anyone. Compared to a 15-foot troll with dripping fangs or a demonic blob with swords for arms, even a Spartan is just another puny human.
And it’s difficult to tell who wins. At times the actors-the realest things in the movie-seem like little dolls lost in director Zack Snyder’s toybox. But at other moments, the surroundings themselves tremble at the sight of the growling loinclothed Adonises, hyper-heroically posed and pumped to take on an endless army.
Snyder’s full-frontal assault on the senses, sadly, leaves no room for any developed characters, moral thought, or even historical realism (Snyder has excused the latter fault with the line that 300 is meant to be true only to the fireside exaggerations of ancient Greek storytellers).
Instead, the film’s gory visual excess is counterbalanced by characters and plot so economic-so, dare I say, spartan-that you could easily miss them completely. The flesh in the movie is not there to bring a human “touch” to the screen, but merely as containers of blood, guts, and machismo. For the guys in the audience this means a chance to cheer for blood, and for the ladies (and some guys) it means a good ogle-fest. Cast as eye-candy against a backdrop of more eye-candy, the actors are at the wrong end of the digital advantage.
The only excess as bombastic as 300’s digital scenery (and the performances that chew it), is the amount of popcorn that will undoubtedly be consumed by legions of fanboys and girls drawn to 2007’s very first blockbuster hit, escaping into a world of muscles and bravery.
Rating: VVVv
