“THIS. IS. SPARTA!”

Frank Miller is known for many things: His impressive story Sin City, saving the Batman Franchise with the definitive Batman story The Dark Knight Returns and his beautiful take on the tale of Leonidas and the Warriors of Sparta in the graphic novel 300. In 2007, Miller’s 300 made the jump to the big screen with the help of Director Zack Synder. Now the epic film 300 has been re-released on DVD in a new limited edition set!

Story
Through the use of narration we learn the tale of Leonidas, King of Sparta. A messenger from Persia has arrived at the gates of Sparta and demands that the King bow to Persia’s “God King” Xerxes. Leonidas doesn’t take well to threats and kills the messenger with a slow motion death into a bottomless pit. Leonidas then goes to consult an Oracle so that he may have permission to wage war against the coming forces. The Oracle denies Leonidas saying that Sparta will fall. Leonidas gathers 300 warriors to go to the area known as the Hot Gates to cut the Persian’s off and force them back from where the came.

Upon arrival at the gates, Leonidas has his men rebuild a great wall using stones and the bodies of Persian scouts. Xerxes’ Emissary arrives to find the wall being built and demands that their leader step forward…lets just say he doesn’t last too long as the 300 Spartans quickly over take him.

Soon Xerxes himself appears and offers Leonidas a place within his ranks and great power. Leonidas declines the offer and would rather die than submit to the “God King”. Soon after the Persian forces advance on the Spartans’ position and soon the battle is fully on.

Who will win in this epic battle? I will give you a hint: “No retreat. No surrender. This is Spartan Law”. If that doesn’t clear it up for you then you will definitely need to get this DVD to find out for yourself!

Style
In order to recreate the imagery of the comic book, the filmmakers used a chroma key technique to superimpose certain colors and appearances onto the actors and the backgrounds. This imagery helps to define the tone of the movie. The use of Green-Screen technology allowed the filmmakers to create the beautiful backdrops and epic battle sequences shown in the movie. The film also employed the use of slow motion in every battle/action sequence in the film. Every gruesome death is displayed with extreme detail with slow motion. Painstaking efforts were made so that this movie would accurately recreate the comic shot for shot. This level of effort is very much apparent in every frame.

Set Special Features
This new set includes a special 52 booklet that has stills from the movie as well as selections from the comic showcasing how accurate the film was compared to the original medium. It also includes a Lucite display with a Motion film.

The set also includes a new bonus disc which has:
-New Featurette: “To the Hot Gates: A Legend Retold”- The Legend of 300 Filtered Through History, Graphic Novel and Film
-Bonus Digital Copy of 300

Also included is the original bonus disc from the 2-disc edition of 300 which has:
-Director’s Audio Commentary
-Deleted Scenes
-Photo Gallery
-Several Making Of Featurettes

Overall
With the release of the Blu-ray format, most deluxe sets like this have been reserved for the Blu-ray re-release. We DVD player owners are very fortunate to get a great set like this. The extra bonus disc and booklet are a very nice addition to anyone’s collection. If you haven’t purchased the film before now is definitely the time. This is the set to own if you are planning to buy this movie on DVD.

ComicsOnline gives 300: Limited 3-Disc Edition 4 out of 5 glorious battles for Sparta.