Brawn outnumbers ‘300’ story

In theaters

300. Directed by Zack Snyder, written by Snyder, Kurt Johnstad and Michael B. Gordon, 117 minutes, rated R.

There’s such a crushing rush of testosterone on display in Zack Snyder’s “300,” those who turn out to see it might leave the theater with an unexpected surprise – male pattern baldness. But don’t fret. The movie is such a slight, unmemorable lightweight, the effects will be gone by morning.

Adapted from Frank Miller and Lynn Varley’s graphic novel, the film is Snyder’s follow-up to his fun, hugely satisfying remake of George A. Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead.” While it stacks up the corpses just as easily – in one scene, they might as well be Lincoln Logs – that’s where the comparisons end.

The movie is just shy of being a cartoon itself, with such emphasis placed on the graphic, highly stylized look of the film, Snyder forgets what matters: attention to the development of the characters and the story.

Set in fifth century B.C., the movie is about the three-day Battle of Thermopylae, in which 300 bellowing, muscle-bound Spartans got pumped up to rumble against a million Persians. It’s something of an understatement to say they were grossly outnumbered, but as the movie sees it, they nevertheless were gifted soldiers aided considerably (or screwed considerably; you decide) by Sparta’s King Leonidas (Gerard Butler), who led the fight and, as history tells us, lost it in a crimson rush of valor.

Their loss against such a vast army will surprise only those who don’t know their history, aren’t aware of the movie on which “300” is loosely based, 1962’s “The 300 Spartans,” or, really, whose strong point isn’t math. Still, what might surprise some is how underwhelming the movie is in spite of such fine opportunities for action and intrigue.

Democracy, after all, is at stake here. It’s what the Spartans are fighting for, and as we all are reminded of daily, dire complications can bloom from that without the right guidance from the right leader.

“300” misses those complications; it would rather decapitate than deconstruct. Worse, for a film filled with so many characters, there isn’t one fully realized character in the mix – not Leonidas, who bellows from his bowels as if he just sat on the Hot Gates themselves; not the Persian emperor Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), who is one wig shy from becoming RuPaul; and not Leonidas’ enemy Theron (Dominic West), whose evil fails to spark a half-cooked subplot involving Leonidas’ wife, Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey).

Looking at the cast, one has to wonder whether Snyder and company shot the movie at a Gold’s Gym, with the mirrors replaced with green screens. Given that the lot of it is essentially beefcake gone berserk, that isn’t the stretch it might seem.

Grade: C-

On DVD and Blu-ray disc

CASINO ROYALE. Directed by Martin Campbell, written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis, 144 minutes, rated PG-13.

The latest James Bond movie, “Casino Royale,” was one of 2006’s best movies – and who saw that coming? Since it was first announced in 2005 that Daniel Craig would replace Pierce Brosnan as Bond, purists began their rumblings and rantings, hammering nails in the film’s coffin and condemning the shift in command while the filmmakers went about their work.

For awhile, it seemed as if Britain’s most notorious, dashing sociopath couldn’t get a break, poor chap. But what director Martin Campbell and his producers likely knew is what we now see onscreen: Craig isn’t just the best Bond since Sean Connery, he in fact creates a richer, more complex Bond, bringing to the character the sort of depth and nuance that Connery never mined.

That isn’t a criticism of Connery, whose genius as Bond is one of pop culture’s great pleasures. Instead, it’s an observation of the way Bond is handled here. “Casino Royale” is an origins movie that considers the brash, younger Bond. It’s designed to infuse him with a back story meant to explain how, in this case, Bond became Bond. It’s this that makes the movie so gratifying.

The superlative action scenes don’t hurt it, either, nor do the performances or the writing, all of which are compelling.

Predictably, the story line is dense, with Bond botching his first mission before a furious M (Judi Dench) dispatches him to the Bahamas and then to Montenegro. There, he is given a last chance to prove his double-0 worthiness by bringing down Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), a villainous financier of terrorists.

Helping him to that end is the fetching Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), an MI-6 accountant whose job it is to give Bond the money he needs to take on Le Chiffre at the tense, high-stakes poker game that consumes the second half of the film. Vesper is Bond’s intellectual and sexual equal. It’s how their relationship evolves that gives the final third of the film its fierce (and surprising) dramatic pull.

In the end, some might miss those old Bond staples – Q and his clever gadgets, the passing presence of Moneypenny, the lighter tone. But the film’s intense, inward shift to a darker, more interesting core proves just right for the times, as did this new Bond himself.

Grade: A

Christopher Smith may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.