300 (2007)

The ads tell you to "prepare for glory" as 300 Spartans go to war against an army of Persians, numbering 250,000, in the film version of Frank Miller's graphic novel about the 480 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae. My advice is to prepare your eyes for popping -- hell, they just might fly out of their sockets -- in the face of such turbocharged visuals. Those who saw Robert Rodriguez's 2005 film of Miller's Sin City, will have some idea of what's in store: Actors perform against blank screens on which…

Built from comic book auteur Frank Miller's (Sin City) rock solid foundations, 300 is based on his vision on the 1962 film The 300 Spartans filtered through the same tough-as-nails pulp sensibility that populates most of his comics work. Leaving such leaden wannabe sword-and-sandal epics like Troy and Alexander in the historical dust, 300 reworks the real-life legendary tale of the Battle of Thermopylae, in which a battalion of 300 elite Spartan soldiers heroically hold the line to protect…