The trailers for 300 have me pumped

[TheDragoon]

I think that what I was expecting was a movie based on an historic event. As such, I expected it to stray somewhat from reality as all movies in such a vein do, but not nearly to the extent that it did. The atual story, itself, is well worthy of a movie, in my mind, given some small embellishments for the film (which would be expected). However, this film went far beyond embellishment. I think your point of it as a tall tale is very close to the mark as everything was very strongly exaggerated. However, to me, a lot of the connection that the film tried to build between the audience and the main characters was lost… it simply deviated too far from reality, compared to what I expected, for me to care about them at all.

I was also blown away by very obvious gaps. Things like the characters making such a big deal about how Spartans fight together and how the man on either side of them was extremely important (as it would be in a true phalanx) and then they all go running off to independantly engage all comers. That sort of thing certainly made for more LotR or superhero movie style fight scenes, but it just didn't work for me.

Maybe if I had any sort of exposure to the book that this film was based on, I would have been more receptive. However, since I did not it was a pretty big let-down and I would generally advise friends to stay home since the only things I really took away from the movie were more examples of things to complain about and/or mock during conversation. :)