300: Rise of an Empire

Welcome to another episode of Lights....Camera....Popcorn!

Today's review is 300: Rise of an Empire.

Directed by Noam Murro.

Written by Zack Snyder & Kurt Johnstad.

Based on the graphic novel "Xerxes" Written by Frank Miller.

Review #246

MPAA Rating: Rated R for strong sustained sequences of stylized bloody violence throughout, a sex scene, nudity and some language.

Run Time: 102 min

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Cast

Sullivan Stapleton...Themistocles

Eva Green...Artemisia

Lena Headey...Queen Gorgo

Hans Matheson...Aesyklos

Callan Mulvey...Scyllias

David Wenham...Dilios

Rodrigo Santoro...Xerxes

Jack O'Connell...Calisto

Andrew Tiernan...Ephialtes

Igal Naor...King Darius

300 was a pretty good film. Despite it's historical inaccuracies about the battle at Thermopylae (it's based on a comic book people....lay off) the stunning visuals and over the top performance by Gerard Butler gave the film a cult status that is still in force today. So after a eight years we are treated to the latest story of the war between Persia and Greece. So the questions that need to be asked is....

Does this film do anything new or just give you more of the same you liked in 300? The answer is more of the same.

Next question.

Was this a good thing? Depends on how much you liked the first film. For me the answer is Yes.

Final question.

Is eight years too long to return to the world of 300? The answer is a resounding YES.

And this was not a good thing.

Plot

Greek general Themistokles leads the charge against invading Persian forces led by mortal-turned-god Xerxes and Artemisia, vengeful commander of the Persian navy.

This film faced two major obstacles that it unfortunately couldn't overcome. The first was lack of originality and the second was time. I didn't read Miller's "Xerxes" so I have no idea how faithful this adaptation was to the graphic novel. So going on blind faith I will give the film credit for trying something bold with the story. Which was toe the line between being a prequel, sequel and outright solo film. This film balances all three aspects which could be very difficult to navigate through. Jumping back and forth through time the way this film does would not have been my way to go.

But of course that's why I blog about the movies instead of making them.

Bottom line is 300: Rise of an Empire does a nice job swimming through potentially harsh waters. The story is relatively easy to follow. Complete with new characters that you could get behind.

The first one being Themistokles played by Sullivan Stapleton. Let's get the obvious out of the way. He's not Leonidas. He never will be and more importantly wasn't supposed to be. Themistokles is an Athenian general who adopts a more democratic view of the country and particularly Athens. Sparta was filled with cocky pricks who looked down on anyone they felt was inferior to them.

Case in point is in this scene pictured above. Themistokles goes to Sparta to see Queen Gorgo whose role is expanded a bit more than in 300. Leonidas has already left for the hot gates so Gorgo takes the meeting and the first thing she says to him is this.

"So Themistokles have you come to stroke your c**k while watching real men train?"

The arrogance of that statement knows no bounds. Regardless it points out an obvious reality that Greece is a divided country not just by geography but by ideology as well. Themistokles comes to Sparta to seek counsel and help by uniting all of Greece against Xerxes. And for his trouble he's met with derision and insults. It was in a way frustrating to watch but you had to have this happen so the rest of the film can play on the way it eventually does.

How it plays out is simply more of what the original 300 gave us which was battle after battle chock full of super slooooooo moooooo and a ton of blood and guts. The difference here was a majority of the battles took place at sea.

This was both a help and a hindrance of the film. On one hand you got to see how Themistokles and his army was able to use their tactical prowess against Xerxes overwhelming numbers. Very similar to the original 300. On the other hand, having most of the battles take place on the water, it limited what they could do which led to eventual stale battles.

Of course all of this becomes moot when the real star of the show comes out to shine.

There is no question about it that 300: Rise of an Empire is Artemisia's film played by the talented and equally stunning Eva Green. This woman is a bona fide knockout and goes toe to toe with the boys here. In fact she has more balls that Queen Gorgo of Sparta. Oh how I would have loved to see the two of them go at it (get your dirty minds out the gutter). Artemisia dominates this movie from the very beginning but that doesn't mean she was perfect. Green clearly had some fun playing this part and took the opportunity to chew the scenery every chance she could. This unfortunately made her cartoonish at times when in the beginning she had established herself as a formidable foe.

In fact her character began to change right around the time this scene took place between her and Themistokles. For some insane reason these two enemies have crazy rough sex together. It was the most nonsensical part of the film. It goes on way too long and had no purpose other than to titillate the audience. There are better ways to get that kind of arousal and this wasn't one of them. I understood the intention and in theory it was a good idea but the execution was poor and miscalculated. Again having not read the graphic novel I wonder if this scene was in the book. I guess I'll never know because I don't care enough about this film or Miller's book to find out.

Which basically sums up my thoughts on this film. It wasn't terrible but it wasn't great either. It was pretty much middle of the road with the same been there, done that action that the first 300 had and has been done better in other films since. In the case of 300: Rise of an Empire, Greece's greatest enemy wasn't Persia.

It was the calendar.

On the 5 star scale. 300: Rise of an Empire gets 2 stars. With a "Netflix It" recommendation.

That's a wrap for today.

Until Next Episode...."I'll Save You A Seat!"

"D"