300: Rise of an Empire

300: Rise of an Empire

Rating 7.5 out of 10

I am a fan of the first 300 movie.  Big fan.  It probably is my favorite movie of all time.  So I went to into Rise of an Empire with the bar set very high although I realized there was no way it would be as good.  Empire was not as good as the original yet I was highly entertained.

Rise of the Empire is a prequel and a sequel of the original where King Leonidas took his well muscled group of super soldiers against thousands of evil Persian invaders.  This whole storyline is VERY loosely based on the true events in Greece history.  If you get a chance to see the show on the History Channel about this subject I highly recommend it.

On to this movie.  While Leonidas is battling with his 300 in history there was also a big battle going on at sea led by Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton) that was equally impressive with very few ships battling a thousand Persian ships full of soldiers.  This is more their story than the rise of revenge that happens afterwards.

Visually this is an incredible movie.  Not for everyone.  If you don't like violence save your money.  There are non-stop battle scenes and blood by the tanker.  The baddest person in the movie is probably a woman.  Artemisia (Eva Green) is a Greece native that was wronged by her countrymen and saved then raised by Persians.  She has a grudge and intends on inflicting misery on her old country.  Eva does a good job of being over the top badness while still somehow being sexy.  Lena Headey returns as Leonidas widow and Rodrigo Santoro is also back as the seven foot god king Xerxes.

The story tends to bounce around more than I would have liked.  The movie they tried to explain the history part the more the story becomes muddled.  This movie won't win any awards.  It's just 100% testosterone from A to Z.  Lots of battling in amazing backgrounds.  You know who the good guy is and who is bad.

While it's not for everyone I enjoyed it.  If you liked the first 300 movie you will most likely enjoy this one.  Just not as much.