300: Rise of an Empire
Starring: Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green, Lena Headey, Hans Matheson, Rodrigo Santoro, Jack O'Connell
Directed by: Noam Murro
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Drama, War
2014

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Greek General Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton) leads his army against the Persian Artemisia (Eva Green).

Review:

Tim: I have to admit that I wasn't overly excited about this movie. Yes, the original 300 was a surprisingly good movie. However, (spoiler alert), everyone dies at the end. That is not a movie that begs for a sequel. A long 8 years later, we get the unnecessary sequel. The movie itself is about what you would expect- not nearly as good as the original, but not terrible in its own right. The movie still just can't shake the feeling that it didn't need to be made. 300: Rise of the Empire is an okay movie, but it still feels like a very unnecessary sequel.

I remember when the first movie came out, the graphics still seemed so fresh and cool. It wasn't the first movie to take this approach, but it was still novel. Eight years later, it's old hat. I honestly don't think I stopped for a second to admire the look of the film. The novelty has worn off and so the movie doesn't get much benefit at all for its visual style.

The story itself is a bit confusing because it's a prequel, sequel, and sidequel (I'm not sure what that would be called). It's not especially hard to follow this (Except for just a few scenes). It's confusing because I'm not sure why the movie took this approach. To have a sequel so fully indebted to the original seems like a poor idea. The movie almost says, "Remember, this is happening BEFORE the events of that other, better movie!" "Now, this is happening at the SAME TIME as the events of that other, better movie!" "Now, this is happening AFTER the events of that other, better movie!" It's just weird, because it continually causes the audience to think back to the original movie. By connecting so closely with the original film, this movie cuts off its own legs so it never really stands on its own.

The cast is most disappointing. The original film worked well because Gerard Butler carried the film. In this movie, our main protagonist is Sullivan Stapleton, who can't hold a candle to Butler. I didn't love Butler in the first film, but man, I totally missed him in this film. Stapleton's charisma is nonexistent. He did nothing special at any point in this film. He was completely forgettable. That hurts the film quite a lot when your leading man induces yawns at every turn. Eva Green was brilliant casting, however, she steals all the scenes she's in. Green embraces her crazy, over-the-top role and is perhaps the most enjoyable member of the cast. I don't know if she gave a truly great performance, but compared to the lackluster talent all around her, she clearly shines in comparison. Lena Headey was fine, but she wasn't especially compelling in the original and is even less effective here. I liked seeing Rodrigo Santoro as Xerxes again (I marvel at the hours of makeup that were required to transform him into this character). The rest of the cast is average-to-below-average.

The film does feature some pretty decent action scenes throughout. There's a lot of blood and gore, but that is to be expected. There were more than a few moments when the blood felt to be too much, but I get that's one of the film's attractions. The sea battles were fairly good. Still, even at the best moments, there's nothing that approaches the most memorable moments in the original.

In the end, 300: Rise of an Empire isn't a terrible movie. However, it's so clearly several tiers lower than the original. This is a movie that needed to overcome the perception that it didn't need to exist. It never achieved that. If anything, it only further reinforced that belief.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: 300