300: Best Movie of the Year

"We're in for one wild night."

Within the first few seconds, you'll realize that you're in for a wild movie. I can't even begin to describe how good this movie is. I can even go as far as saying that this is the best movie ever not in a trilogy.


The images that Zack Snyder and Frank Miller give the audience is almost intoxicating. You can really get a visual high from the movie. I lost count of how many "Astig!" "Ungas!" "Hanep!" "Ta***na, ang galing!" "Bangas!" "Lupit!" "F**k, sobrang ganda nito!" I might have said while watching the movie.


Honestly, it is that good. My wife said that this was the only movie (along with LOTR) that she couldn't find a fault with, cinematics-wise. Personally, the one thing I sort of got bored with in the movie was the Queen's speech in the council chambers. I felt like this was wasting 5 minutes in the movie and the speech itself was terribly done. (What am I saying? 5 minutes? If it wasn't for all the slow motion, the movie could have been over by 30 minutes! Ha!) Anyway, the story more than made up for this at the end of her speech when she did something that'll make you think: "Wow, she is a Spartan woman!" My point is, my wife was right. There really is nothing bad you can say about this movie. Even though it was a historical representation of the Battle of Thermopylae, it was never meant to educate on the accuracies of it but rather a fantasy story based on it.


All aspects of it are great: cinematography, sound, plot, dialogue, directing, editing, characters and even acting. Could anyone have given a better Leonidas' than Gerard Butler? Or David Wenham's (Faramir/Dilios) voice-over narrative. Or even Xerxes's performance? (Who by the way was Randy Emmers in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. Who would have thought?)

I left the movie wanting to be a Spartan. Wanting to be part of something so great, so violent, driven by purpose, driven by a "No retreat, No surrender" principle. This is hands down, the best movie of the last four years (LotR:RotK 2003) and can possibly be for the next few years.

Spartans! Enjoy your breakfast, for tonight we dine in Hell!




Image from IMDB.com