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I really really really wanted to love this movie like I loved Sin City.
I didn't and couldn't. The images of battle were beautiful, really beautiful and the oracle's dance was incredibly effective and powerful. The depiction of the Persian excess-Xerxes' moving temple, for example-were breathtaking.
The rest of the movie was blah. The entire "meanwhile in New Jersey" storyline back in Sparta was both terrible and completely pointless, to say nothing of being nothing even in the remote general vicinity of historically accurate. Also, for all the lofty talk of the phalanx, as far as I could tell they used it for all of five minutes. And then they didn't use it and were slaughtered. Now, I realize that watching 1 or 2 guys run around alone slaughtering hoards of bad guys is probably for the average viewer much more interesting than watching a phalanx work. However, the entire reason this battle is so famous is because of the fact that they used the damn thing to the full extent of its lethal potential. The movie paid modest lip service to that fact, but didn't show me all I wanted to see.
I enjoyed it, I'm glad I saw it, my fiance and I will probably own it, but it's not going on my favorites list.
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