I must say I had to really prepare myself for 300, just as I did for Lord of the Rings or LOTR. I knew what to expect because of the graphic novel and because I read all of Tolkien's books years ago. What I wasn't prepared for was the 'preachiness' (propaganda). IMO the film/story is in-your-face white/western supremacy and I haven't seen anything like that since digging into the Disney vault to check out Song of the South (actually I have)...but I'll let the young, angry Persian guy vent first:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWLk3hfy1Hk

I debated whether or not 300 was even worth my matinee money and my curiosity won out in the end. In the 25th hour, I realized that 300 is no different from LOTR and Tolkien wrote those novels nearly 70 years ago, so why not see the movie? The same b.s. conflicts that existed during his time exist today. Afterwards, I watched a TV show about the fight between radical Jews and Muslims to dig around the "holiest of holies" to find the Ark of the Covenant. They were even talking about escalating it to WWIII! All over a myth...

...and myths are very important. As with LOTR I predict that 300 will have a profound and wide-ranging impact on popular culture. Mostly, 300 maintains a status quo: The good guys are white and virtuous and the bad guys are dark, sinful, undemocratic, and a psychologically undeveloped horde. For today's film fans, this older racism fuses with a current fear and hatred of Islam that supports a crusading war in the Middle East. The mass appeal of 300 may well rest on racist codes.

But we all want to see an entertaining film, right?