300: Rise of an Empire

SEIZE AND PREPARE FOR GLORY FOR TONIGHT, WE DINE IN HELL!

Release dates: March 4, 2014 (Asia)

March 5, 2014 (United States)

Sullivan Stapleton as Themistocles

Eva Green as Artemisia

Lena Headley as Queen Gorgo

Rodrigo Santoro as Xerxes

Director: N

Producers: Zack Snyder (Man of Steel, 300, Watchmen)

Frank Miller (300, Sin City, Batman: The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Strikes Again)

Notable Quotes:

"If death comes for me today I am ready." - Artemisia

"You fight for freedom? I offer freedom without consequence or responsibility" - Artemisia 

"Let our final stand be recorded in the histories, that we chose to die on our feet rather than live on our knees!" - Themistocles

"It begins as a whisper... a promise... the lightest of breezes dances above the death cries of 300 men. That breeze became a wind. A wind that my brothers have sacrificed. A wind of freedom... a wind of justice... a wind of vengeance." - Queen Gorgo

This movie is neither a sequel nor a prequel but rather a film that connects to all the aspects of how things unfolded within The First and Second Greco-Persian War. It took 7 years for producer Zack Snyder (who directed the first film) to come up with the second film from his successful film 300 back in 2007.  The film is based on Frank Miller's  unpublished graphic novel "Xerxes". There are a lot of things that I considered while watching this film. Fist of, will this be as successful as the first film? Second, will it have that same strong story line like what we witnessed in 300? Thirdly, will the new protagonist Themistocles played by Sullivan Stapleton to be as eye catching and watchable as Gerard Butler's portrayal of King Leonidas? Luckily, almost everything went well with my expectations.

Let's face it, Themistocles is no Leonidas as Sullivan Stapleton is no Gerard Butler. When Butler played Leonidas he was ravishing, mighty, powerful and memorable. He had a lot of lines in the film that were memorable as well. As for Stapleton's portrayal of Themistocles, it was hard for me to focus on him as the main protagonist as he was not even close to a 100% memorable guy here. I watched the film with my wife and both of us got confused at times as who was really the hero of the film. Stapleton wasn't really that convincing and interesting but I guess his character did some good in the movie. Protagonists should all be interesting to watch and should provide a performance to remember and be talked about for a long period of time. 

 

As for the main antagonist of the film Artemisia, which was played by actress Eva Green, she was one bad ass, hot chick villainess to be reconed with. That sex scene between her and Stapleton was ravishing so to speak. It was like a cat and dog fight with growls and all that. Eva's portrayal of the character was great and she somewhat kicked out Xerxes into the sidelines and saying, "Get out of the way gay god king, I'm the bad ass villain here now not you." (^_^) A truly powerful performance but I wished she was aligned with the good guys.

 

I am a bit disappointed at some characters in the movie that mostly did short scenes like Queen Gorgo and Xerxes. Well, for Xerxes, at least we get to see how he became the self proclaimed god king. As for Gorgo, to be honest when I first heard that a sequel will be made and she was in the movie, I thought she would have more scenes and have a huge part  in the film but sadly she took over as the narrator of the film (in the first film it was Dilios who narrated the story) After seeing the film I wished Gorgo and Artemesia had clashed and that Gorgo was the one who killed Artemesia. That would've been nice if they did that but I guess they are saving her blade and furry for Xerxes in the next film since he was the one who killed the King of Sparta. The fight scenes were well choreographed and if you are a fan of gore movies, you won't mind the blood being spilled all over like hell. CGI was good as well especially with the battles at sea and all that but not as memorable as the fight scenes from the first film.

  

My Evaluation

Story: 4/5

Let's admit it, this is no 300 and the characters are not that memorable but the story played out good. Great job for the new director although I would've wanted Snyder to have directed and produced this but hey, that's how things are in life.  I wonder if I can find someone who can connect all these scenes from the two films and make it into one? (hmmm.. interesting wouldn't you say so?) Congratulations to the people behind this movie and I am looking forward to the final chapter of this great franchise. (Hoping that they'd make one and have Gorgo kill Xerxes big time.)

Comments and suggestions are always welcome. Thank you and have a wonderful day.