This past Tuesday I trekked up to my local cineplex to take in Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Frank Miller’s seminal graphic novel, 300. I’ll dispense with the pain staking review, as that can be left to the pros. Instead, I’ll leave you with my general observations I took away from the film.

I have to admit that going in to this movie, I was getting worried that 300 was getting ‘over-hyped’. It was all over the place, Snyder was getting acclaim from fanboys all across the blogosphere … could this movie be actually that good?

Simply put, yes it is. What made this work was Gerard Butler’s portrayal of King Leonidas. He was an unholy amalgam of William Wallace of Braveheart, Maximus of Gladiator, and John McClaine of Die Hard.

To call this film brutally violent would be an understatement, but it is a key component of the story. 300 Spartans defended their position for 2 whole days, taking on the largest army in well … history. Heads, arms, legs, all went flying in the hyper-stylized battle sequences.

Now my next comment may come as slightly homo-erotic, so please take it in the context of my review. The physique of the Spartan Warriors were ridiculous, and wholly unbelievable. These actors made all of those jacked WWE wrestlers look like absolute pussies. I’m fully confident that Gerard Butler and his crew could fuck up a million or so Persians. To make up for the oiled, mostly naked dudes there is a good amount of female nakedness including the oh so delightful Lena Headey.

Zack Snyder’s 300 was faithful to the source material, however not to the extend of Sin City. Due to the nature of the novel, Snyder had to introduce new characters and sub-plots otherwise the movie would have been over in 40 minutes. I also appreciated the depiction of the God-King Xerxes (who reminded me of Ra from Stargate) and his Persian hordes. As a history buff, (especially of ancient civilizations) he really played up the mysticism of the Persians.

It’s a powerful theatrical experience, and I urge you all to go out and support this movie in theaters. It’s one of those movies you have to see on a 50′ screen surrounded by a THX rated sound system. In the next week or so I’m hoping to get out to King of Prussia to catch this on IMAX. Simply put, 300 was the BALLZ