300, great movie, but something is not right about it.

If you know anything about movies, you know that the movie 300 just came out this weekend, and could very well be among the highest grossing films of all time. As an avid movie buff, I felt compelled to be among the thousands of nerds who stood in line for hours to see it on opening night. Before I get into one of my rants, I should let everyone know that I did not stand in line to get seats, I was able to trick the movie theater employees and get in passed the line up. Anyways, on to the rant about this movie......

Don't get me wrong, this movie is good. It is worthy of all the hype, and entertaining as all hell. The problem is not the movie itself, but rather the message behind it. I enjoyed the movie, but when I left the theater, I knew something was wrong with it. It started with the Army propaganda commercial that they showed before the movie. It is the standard commercial that glorified the army life. In all fairness, they show this commercial before all movies now, but the fact that they showed it before this movie struck a cord with me. The parallel is, of course, that this movie is about the Spartan philosophy that there is glory in fighting and dying for your country. Could it be that this movie came out at a perfect time when the government needs more soldiers than ever before, and when they are having trouble finding new soldiers?

The only way they could have made this more obvious is if they would have played another army propaganda commercial at the end of the movie as well.