300 - What did everyone think?

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I finally just saw it last night. I have to agree with Jona. Any changes made compared to the graphic novel seemed to push a political agenda.

Let us not forget the necrophilia friendly Corpse Bride, or the fact that Dirty Harry is an attempt to expose the corrupt fools that have power. Or the fact that all the good guys in LotR are white, and the bad guys are all black or arab.

See where I am going? It's a movie, dammit. Leave it at that. Or as a friend of mine put it: "the only reason to read anything into it is to get into an argument".

EDIT: From Wikipedia:

Prior to the release of 300, Warner Brothers expressed concerns about the political aspects of the film's theme. Snyder relates that "There was a huge sensitivity about East versus West with the studio." Media speculation about a possible parallel between the Greco-Persian conflict and current events began in an interview with Snyder that was conducted before the Berlin Film Festival. The interviewer remarked that "everyone is sure to be translating this [film] into contemporary politics." Snyder replied that, while he was aware that people would read the film through the lens of contemporary events, no parallels between the film and the contemporary world were intended.

At a press junket following a February screening in Los Angeles, Snyder was again asked about the film's political implications. At the Berlin screening, Snyder claims that a reporter asked, "Don’t you think it’s interesting that your movie was funded at this point?" Snyder clarifies, "The implication was that funding came from the U.S. government."

Outside of current political parallels, some critics have raised more general questions about the film's ideological orientation. The New York Post's Kyle Smith writes that the film would have pleased "Adolf's boys," and Slate's Dana Stevens compares the film to The Eternal Jew. Roger Moore, a critic for the Orlando Sentinel, matches 300 to Susan Sontag's definition of "fascist art." David Kahane of the National Review praises the movie for valorizing "Real all-American stuff," in which "heroes [stand] up for God and country".

However, Newsday critic Gene Seymour dismisses such reactions as misguided, writing that "the movie's just too darned silly to withstand any ideological theorizing." Snyder himself dismisses ideological readings, suggesting that reviewers who critique a "graphic novel movie about a bunch of guys...stomping the snot out of each other" using words like " 'neocon,' 'homophobic,' 'homoerotic' or 'racist' " are "missing the point."