300: Rise of an Empire (**½)
Directed
by: Noam Murro
Starring:
Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green, Lena Headey, Rodrigo Santoro, Jack O’Connell,
Hans Matheson, Callan Mulvey, David Wenham, Yigal Naor
Seen:
March 8th 2014
**½
Out of ****
300:
Rise of an Empire works relatively well as a sequel for/continuation of/step-back
from the original 300. Zack Snyder was the director and co-writer (screenplay)
of 300, and with 300: Rise of an Empire he is once again on board, but this
time as screenwriter and producer. Both movies are based on Frank Miller’s
graphic novels which in turn are based on true battles fought near 480 B.C..
300: Rise of an Empire is a zoom-out from the original story of 300, the first
movie is merely a plot point in this movie. The look and feel of the movies are
incredibly similar, with the only differences (if I even remember it correctly)
being that Rise of an Empire is more expansive, featuring various different battle
locales, that it includes a slightly more aggressive and excessive (and
unnecessary) sex scene, and that, apart from a line here and there, the
dialogue is slightly weaker than that of its predecessor.
In
the Battle of Marathon, King Darius I (Naor) of Persia is attacking Greece, but
he is killed in front of his son Xerxes (Santoro) by the Greek General
Thermistocles (Stapleton). Xerxes is coaxed into a journey through the desert
by the Persian Naval Commander, and pretty much God-daughter of Darius,
Artemisia (Green). Artemisia hopes the trip would eliminate what she sees as a
weak successor to Darius in Xerxes, but Xerxes stumbles into a mysterious cave
where he is ‘transformed’ into a god-king, the Xerxes we saw in 300. Thermistocles
approaches the Greek Council to plan the defense against Xerxes on land and
against Artemisia at sea. A Greek spy finds out that Artemisia is Greek by
birth, but she was shown kindness by Persia after being horribly mistreated by
Greece, and in this Greece’s possible undoing might come from their own dark doings.
The
movie looks fantastic with very smooth slow-motion sequences interspersed with quick
flurries of movement and generous amounts of 3D blood splatters in battle
scenes complemented by gorgeous set design on almost every screen – certainly mostly
in front of a green screen, but very well done. The acting is cordially credible
and sufficiently succinct to move the plot along at a brisk pace whenever
things get a bit too far from the battle. Eva Green annoys me though, as to me it
seems like she exclusively does her acting with her mouth, and nothing else.
Sneering, jeering, and smirking, she snidely creates a cartoonish villain in a
graphic novel world while offering men little more than one thing only, a peek
under her shirt…
300:
Rise of an Empire is the emotional and physical and visual successor to 300 and
comes extremely close to being its equal. If you really enjoyed 300, you will
certainly enjoy 300: Rise of an Empire, as it is essentially an extended look
into that very same world Zack Snyder created in conjunction with Frank Miller for
the first 300.
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