I didn't know this when i first saw this epic adventure, but the story is based off of a comic book series that shares a name with it. This movie did exceptionally well at the box office pulling in pulling in over $450 million globally.
[source](http://www.impawards.com/2007/posters/three_hundred_ver12.jpg)Starring Gerard Butler, who I didn't know much about prior to this movie and a bunch of other people that had to do 1000 situps a day for a year to prepare for the role (don't look that stat up as it is not real.) The film features a wonderful use of blue screen technology and some very cool slow-down techniques and what I have read to be over 1500 special effect add on's including the copious amounts of blood splattering all over the place.
The entire film is narrated by one of the participants in the battle, Delios. This isn't entirely evident as the film progresses because he doesn't have very many lines outside of the narration. To be fair, no one really had many lines as this film is almost entirely action-based, which is just fine by me.
One of my favorite characters in the film is Xerxes, the leader of the Persian forces.
The funny thing about this is that Xerxes is presented as being between 7 and 8 feet tall but the actor who played him (Rodrigo Santoro) is roughly the same height as Gerard Butler. This has an easy fix in tight shots by simply having him stand on a raised platform but there are a few wide shots where you can see his feet as well. I don't know how they pulled that off but it certainly shows what technology can do.
I was quite surprised to find out that although the film received a standing ovation at the premiere, it was actually panned by a great many of the profession critics. I think they were trying to look at this as some sort of biopic because it is very loosely based on the Battle of Thermopylae and some critics even said the film reeked of racism and discrimination... huh? Pull the SJW stick out of your butt guys. This film is awesome.
