300 Rise of an Empire
splattering post-Zatoichi digital blood with their sloshing swords and arrow
More blood, more action, more six packs, even more story!
Calling 300: Rise of an Empire a sequel to 300 could be a misinterpretation. Rise of an Empire's plot timeline occurs before, during and after the original movie's timeline. The movie is narrated by King Leonidas' wife, Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey), who tells the story of an Athenian hero called Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton). Themistokles killed Xerxes' father Darius (Igal Naor) during the Battle of Marathon. Ten years after that event Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) decided to revenge his father and destroy all of Greece. This time Themistokles must stop the giant Persian navy lead by Xerxes' second in command, the menacing Artemisia (Eva Green). Even after just glancing at the movie's synopsis, it's very obvious that 300: Rise of an Empire's title doesn't make much sense. There are much more than 300 warriors in the movie (none of them Spartan) fighting the Persian hordes, and no empire is rising during the movie. There are some talks about uniting the Greek city-states, but that's about it.
Though Zack Snyder who directed the first 300, was only the producer of this one, his style of making a comic book come to life visually on the silver screen is all over this. It's one of the things I think we all loved about the first 300 (and Zack Snyder as a filmmaker) how he took Frank Miller's art work and brought it into motion almost like animation. Not as well as Robert Rodriguez did for Sin City, but that's because In a time when comic book movies are in, Snyder is a comic book artist in his own right. His film making on 300 was the difference between Frank Miller doing the artwork himself, or having Jim Lee or Alex Ross do it for him.
The main body of the movie,Themistokles against Artemisia in the best set piece, as well as some fiery erotic action and cuss words between two superb fighters and strategist who appreciate each other's excellence and attempt to win over each other to their side. When neither succeeds, there is a predictable finale.
Thanks to Eva Green, who delivers a sexy revengeful Artemisia, At first I thought it was only a big gimmick to have a female as the naval commander of Persia. However, as it turns out, Ms. Green would completely own this film. without her, this film would have been tanked big time.Noam Murro (a director with the credentials of the romantic comedy "Smart People" and some commercials)definitely brought his Snyder notebook on this one and it feels more of an expansion of a style rather than pure imitation. so if you are not fan of blood and gory then enjoy monochrome cinematic style !!
splattering post-Zatoichi digital blood with their sloshing swords and arrow
More blood, more action, more six packs, even more story!
Calling 300: Rise of an Empire a sequel to 300 could be a misinterpretation. Rise of an Empire's plot timeline occurs before, during and after the original movie's timeline. The movie is narrated by King Leonidas' wife, Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey), who tells the story of an Athenian hero called Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton). Themistokles killed Xerxes' father Darius (Igal Naor) during the Battle of Marathon. Ten years after that event Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) decided to revenge his father and destroy all of Greece. This time Themistokles must stop the giant Persian navy lead by Xerxes' second in command, the menacing Artemisia (Eva Green). Even after just glancing at the movie's synopsis, it's very obvious that 300: Rise of an Empire's title doesn't make much sense. There are much more than 300 warriors in the movie (none of them Spartan) fighting the Persian hordes, and no empire is rising during the movie. There are some talks about uniting the Greek city-states, but that's about it.
300 Rise of an Empire tells the story of Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro, Lost) and his navy commander Artemisia (Eva Green, Kingdom of Heaven) and their crusade against the Greek, the Spartan queen Gorgo (Lena Headey, 300) and Greeks military leader Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton, Strike Back). It enlightens the story of how Xerxes became god-king and what happened after Leonidas and the brave 300 were overrun by the Persian empire.King Xerxes gets an exposition of his metamorphosis past, a "before" and "after" look as herbal steroid, magic spell and CG alter his appearance to that of a giant. This retains some of the magical vibe from previous title, although only a mere fragment of it.Some action sequences (especially the ones of naval battles) looked decent but everything fell apart when the fake CGI blood (which looked like something created in Microsoft paint) started spraying around
When Themistokles killed Persian King Darius with an arrow during a battle, it set off a chain of events, the most important of which was turning the King's son, a normal young prince at the start, into the campy god-king Xerxes we saw in "300". Instrumental to this was Artemisia, who pulled all the strings behind this new iconic symbol of the Persian Empire. Her own history is revealed a little later in the movie in another flashback: her family annihilated and herself ravished by fellow-Greeks during in-fights. Eventually saved and trained by the Persian to be their best general, she vowed to avenge herself by distroying greece.
Though Zack Snyder who directed the first 300, was only the producer of this one, his style of making a comic book come to life visually on the silver screen is all over this. It's one of the things I think we all loved about the first 300 (and Zack Snyder as a filmmaker) how he took Frank Miller's art work and brought it into motion almost like animation. Not as well as Robert Rodriguez did for Sin City, but that's because In a time when comic book movies are in, Snyder is a comic book artist in his own right. His film making on 300 was the difference between Frank Miller doing the artwork himself, or having Jim Lee or Alex Ross do it for him.
The main body of the movie,Themistokles against Artemisia in the best set piece, as well as some fiery erotic action and cuss words between two superb fighters and strategist who appreciate each other's excellence and attempt to win over each other to their side. When neither succeeds, there is a predictable finale.
Thanks to Eva Green, who delivers a sexy revengeful Artemisia, At first I thought it was only a big gimmick to have a female as the naval commander of Persia. However, as it turns out, Ms. Green would completely own this film. without her, this film would have been tanked big time.Noam Murro (a director with the credentials of the romantic comedy "Smart People" and some commercials)definitely brought his Snyder notebook on this one and it feels more of an expansion of a style rather than pure imitation. so if you are not fan of blood and gory then enjoy monochrome cinematic style !!
