Absent are the frantic cuts, shaking camera, smeared focus, and unidentifiable

At one point near the end of 300, King Leonidas remarks, The world will know that few stood against many.

This single statement summarizes the film: few standing against many.

300 is based on Frank Millers comic book rendition of the Battle of Thermopylae. Spartan king Leonidas, with 299 of his best warriors at his side, made a final stand against the ever-growing Persian Empire, whose numbers rose into the millions.

Like Frank Millers previous big-screen adaptation, Sin City, 300 is filmed using real actors on a CG background in order to give the creators the freedom to fully realize the vision of the artist.

Surreal locations lie at every corner of this film. From an ever-moving ocean of wheat, to a mountaintop palace that seems to look down on the clouds themselves, the use of green-screen allowed for these mesmerizing sites to be fully fleshed out.

As beautiful as these digital set-pieces may be, they seem to be simply filler until the film can fully stretch its legs. Once the Spartan few clash against the Persian many, director Zack Snyder begins to show us something truly unique.

Snyder, whose only previous film was the so-so remake of Dawn of the Dead, seems to be one of the few American directors in recent memory to understand the countless elements needed to make a battle scene memorable.

Absent are the frantic cuts, shaking camera, smeared focus and unidentifiable spaces that seem to be the downfall of most action scenes nowadays. Snyder employs long shots of varying speeds to convey the fact that Spartan warriors had mastered the art of death.

The acting is pretty much what youd expect from a movie about half naked men butchering each-other. Grunts, screams and one-liners populate the battle just as much as the warriors do. However, there are a few stand-outs in the film.

Gerard Butler as King Leonidas fits the role extremely well. His physical appearance and roaring speeches give him gravitas that cannot be ignored. In fact, his presence is so impressive, that we can forgive him when he slips in and out of his Scottish accent.

The other notable role belongs to Xerxes, played with a surreal calm by Rodrigo Santoro. Its a daunting task to play a man who truly believes he is a god, but Santoro manages to pull it off. The copious amounts of jewelry, his massive height and the ethereal quality of his voice all meld into a single entity unlike any other.

Snyder handles the source material with great care, rarely deviating from the world that Frank Miller created. When changes are made, they are usually there to flesh out plot points and provide yet another stimulating visual image.

The best moments of the film are when the image slows to a crawl, allowing the viewer to fully embrace the beauty on screen. This only helps strengthen the bond that the film shares with its graphic novel counterpart.

In the end, 300 is a film to be ogled, not dissected. It is not an allegory of Americas situation in the Middle East, as many critics have suggested. It is simply a visual feast, serving images so original and awe-inspiring, that they more than make up for any shortcomings the film may have.

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