Friday, March 14, 2014

300 Rise of an Empire Review


300: Rise of an Empire (2014)

Directed by Noam Murro
Screenplay by Zack Snyder and Kurt Johnstad
Starring Sullivan Stapleton as Themistokles and Eva Green as Artmisia


The premise of this movie is simple. The mighty warrior Themistokles leads a band of Greeks into battle once again against the power hungry Persian God-King Xerxes. In that sense, this seems to follow the same theme as the original movie, 300 (starring Gerrard Butler as King Leonidas and Lena Headey as Queen Gorgo). If this is your expectation as well, then you are in for a rude awakening. Walking into this movie with the hope of moving moments like King Leonidas proclaiming that “This is Sparta” as the Persian messenger took a boot to the chest for having the audacity to disrespect the Spartan Queen Gorgo, the Spartan way of life, and the unforgettable pair of Stelios (Michael Fassbender) and Astinos (Tom Wisdom) laughing as they are showered with enough arrows to darken the sky saying, “Fight in the shade” from 300 is unwise on your part. Instead, I urge you to view 300: Rise of an Empire with an open mind and no expectations.


This second installment to the 300 family of movies is a way for us to understand why the war began, what was going one while the mighty 300 Spartans laid down their lives at the hot gates of Thermopylae, and what happened after the God-King Xerxes took the head of the forever to be remembered Leonidas. Unfortunately the trailers, as intriguing as they were, give off the impression of another memorable wave of Spartan fighting glory between the fearless Themistokles and Artmisia, the vengeful spirit of war incarnate, which is sadly not the case. Sure, it had a scene or two where you can feel the “ooooh” and “ahh” fighting moment. There is even a moment where you feel you can stand on your feet, grab a shield of your own, and cross swords with your fair share of the Persian Navy at the first light of the breaking day. But these are few and far between. In terms of fighting, you are in for just under 2 hours of what feels more like the “craftsmen and artisans” of the original 300 versus the Spartan fire of warriors trained since birth to have a “beautiful death”.


So grab yourself a bag of popcorn and a soft drink and get comfortable. You are in for a story worth remembering. And from the looks of things, we are most definitely in for a trilogy and I, for one, look forward to it.

Review by SG Walters 
Works by SG Walters can be found at SG Walters Website

1 comment:

  1. Nice Review, overall its a fun flick. Who ever came to see Rise of an Empire, came for the blood, gore, and the visual presentation the film offered. i wanted to see the action, and overall relax lay back and just to have fun. Rise of an Empire provides that experience for the action fan, and that's all that matters.
    if you are interested checking out my review of the film, you are welcome to visit at - http://www.coolreviewsrule.com/2014/06/300-rise-of-empire-review.html

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