Meet the Spartans operates not as a satire of the source material's themes, but as a disjointed collection of contemporary advertisements, celebrities, and internet memes shoehorned into the setting of ancient Greece. The film references everything from American Idol to Britney Spears and Spider-Man , often with no narrative justification. Critics universally panned this approach; the film holds a dismal 2.7/10 rating on IMDb and a 14% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The consensus was that the film mistook recognition for comedy—if the audience recognized the celebrity being mocked, the directors considered it a successful joke. This lack of comedic discipline rendered the film a critical failure, yet its aggressive marketing and connection to the popular 300 ensured it turned a profit at the box office.
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: Critics and audiences often categorize it alongside other Friedberg and Seltzer parodies like Scary Movie , Date Movie , and Epic Movie .