 Newsday critic Gene Seymour , on the other hand , stated that such reactions are misguided , writing that " the movie 's just too darned silly to withstand any ideological theorizing . " Snyder himself dismissed 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 . " Snyder , however , also admitted to fashioning an effeminate villain specifically to play into the homophobia of young straight males . Slovenian critic Slavoj Žižek pointed out that the story represents " a poor , small country ( Greece ) invaded by the army of a much large [ r ] state ( Persia ) , " suggesting that the identification of the Spartans with a modern superpower is flawed . 
