300 HD-DVD Review

[MatrixDweller]

I honestly expected more from this film by all the hype that was generated. Don't get me wrong, 300 is an excellent special effects movie that utilizes CGI to it's maximum. It did however have some flaws. For one the make-up/animation on the disfigured Ephialtes could have been done much better. Ephialtes as a whole reeked of cheese IMO.

The sound quality in 300 is excellent. The thunder in introduction starts the movie off on a good foot and the quality continues throughout. The HD-DVD includes both Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital True audio tracks. Sound 5/5

The picture quality is very good but not the best I've seen. The film had a slight grain to it which was present on my 30" CRT and 92" Projection. The grain gives the film a more comic bookish feel in a way similar to Sin City, another of Frank Miller's adaptions. I still prefer a razor sharp image and 300 appeared soft. Picture Quality 4/5

Extra Features are sometime I'm rarely interested in but with the technological improvemnts over DVD, HD-DVD is bringing more advanced features that have caught my eye. Extra Features 5/5

The movie story wise is interesting but not all that complex. If you're looking for something that will make you think 300 is not it. The acting as a whole was fairly convincing despite the annoyance of Ephialtes. The movie is quite surreal in places and Xerxes army tends to get on the side of ridiculous at times. It's still a very fun movie to watch and I throughly enjoyed it. Movie 3/5

[Mitch G]

Just watched it the other night. I generally agree with your review. Some of the subplots didn't seem necessary, but I think the key is going in knowing the movie is based on a graphic novel. If I thought it was meant to be a historically accurate movie or at least trying to be, I would have been disappointed.

BTW, I was playing around with the PIP feature that shows the green/blue screen stuff and noticed that in Chapter 3 at 00:11:27 (Title 004) the blue screen shot is a mirror image of what was used in the movie. This is a slow pan/zoom of some women and children in the courtyard.

Mitch