The Persian army wasn't composed of monsters, to start. In the movie, many of the enemy soldiers are deliberately made to be monstrous and non-human. Additionally, the movie pays only lip service to the thousands of non-Spartan soldiers who fought (and died) there. The battle scenes are complete fabrications - the Spartans pay lip service to their proper formation, but abandon it for individual heroics at the earliest opportunity. Essentially, it would be easier to ask what is <i>correct</i> about the movie than to list the differences.