300: Rise of an Empire Movie Review

A very busy March sees us begin with a return to the movie franchise which makes grown men cry...

300: Rise of an Empire is directed by Noam Murro and is written by Frank Miller (author of the graphic novels) and Zach Snyder (director of 300). The film expands the narrative and universe of 2007's 300, taking place before, during and after the events of that film. We learn the origins of the "God King" Xerxes as well as the events which proceeded after Leonidas and the Spartans fought against the mighty Persian empire. Athenian warrior Themistokles must unite the states of Greece together in order to stop Xerxes and his enormous fleet.

Admittedly my expectations for this movie were low, and I think that that contributed to my final opinion of the film. While there are numerous things I didn't like about the film, I was still entertained by Rise of an Empire, in the guiltiest ways possible.

For a start the film isn't for everybody. If you like battles, screaming men and buckets full of blood, then your going to be a fan of this film no matter what! While the amount of blood spilled borders into excessive, it is admittedly still entertaining to watch a brutal Greek thrust is sword into the gullet of an unfortunate Persian.

The film did have my attention throughout and I found myself comfortable with the lore and backstory of the world the movie was taking place in. The film itself has a generally weak plot because other than the Persians and Athenians going to war with each other at sea, nothing else really happens! The narrative was also told through narration via a female voice, which for me was just a weak way for the writers to tell the story.

Sullivan Stapleton plays protagonist Themistokles in a perfectly acceptable way for this franchise and evidently had fun in his role. Eva Green plays Artemisia, commander of the Persian naval fleet, and obviously enjoys herself as well. However her performance does cross the line of being over the top. That's right, her performance is too over the top, and this is a 300 movie!!

The film is forgettable yet satisfying in a lot of ways and entertaining throughout. You walk into a 300 film to watch people fight and you are rewarded with that in this movie. Visually, the film retains the same style it's predecessor had, plus it utilised slow motion shots, obvious green screens and CGI blood in it's action sequences, of which there were plenty. While I said in my Legend of Hercules review that the slow motion was overused, it didn't bother me in 300 because 300 first used that technology. Also, the film is pretty much lifted off the pages of a graphic novel, so should look, sound and feel as if it has been lifted off those very pages.

The film's ending is still somewhat unsatisfying. I'd rather they finished the story in this movie instead of relying on box office funds to maybe finish it in another sequel.

To my surprise, 300: Rise of an Empire was strangely enjoyable. However, problems like a lack of connection to any of the main characters can not go unnoticed:


Rating - C+


1 sentence summary - Bloody, violent, over the top. It's flawed to hell but strangely satisfying!


Thanks for reading,
Matt