I finally saw 300 yesterday, and well I'm kind of mixed on it. Visually it was amazing, and the action scenes are extremely impressive. I like Butler in pretty much everything he's in, and I thought he did a good job, even if he did sound like a Spartan from Glasgow, lol! Dafedora, I agree Xerxes voice was a ripoff, in fact I heard a bit of Palpatine from Sith, after he gets fried by Samuel L. Jackson. I guess what I felt mixed about was it seemed somewhat realistic at times, like that's what they were striving for, and then it went completely into left field w/something supernatural or mystical. Like the Goat headed/pan flute playing creature in Xerxes tent, where did he come from? Or, the myriad number of deformed orc like characters and mutants. I'm sure there were deformed people back 2,400 years ago, but entire armies of them, ie. The Immortals? I'm not as up on the historical side to 300 is it more mythological than fact, maybe some of you can fill me in?
Lastly, the bluescreen was of course a necesssity to get Miller's frenzied artstyle to the screen, but I wanted to see one real sky, it just started to feel really sterile, and the colors were so drained, except for the Spartan's capes. I enjoyed the movie for what it was, and visually I was blown away, but I'll take Gladiator anyday over this.