300 Rise Of An Empire Movie Review

The original 300 well long be remembered for being a visually stunning and completely entertaining movie. And of course large mounds of six packs. Sadly, its sequel, 300 Rise Of An Empire won’t be remembered at all. While it has the large mounds of six packs and the occasional pair of breasts, and it hasn’t got much else. Even 300’s much loved visuals, while somewhat intact, get lost in a muddy sea of sea.

Following on from the original and its tragic finale, the Persian Army under the command of Xerxes and Artemisia go for a bit of a wander toward a bunch of Greek cities and bring some destruction along with them for good measure. On the other side we have Themistocles who attempts to unite all of Greece and kick some Persian backsides while he’s at it.

Visually, 300 Rise Of An Empire attempts to emulate the original, but fails in the process alot of the time. Much of the movie seems to take place late at night and at other times, its like they forgot to render in the sun, which makes 3D viewing a bit tough on the eyes. Speaking of the 3D, it works well enough in places, but is not worth the extra cash you’ll have to spend.  In any case, you’ll probably be asleep for most of it. The action set pieces are presented in a way that ensures your brain won’t be able to figure out just what exactly is going on. And the same can be said for the dialogue. Its long winded and unless you’re a scholar in Greek history, then you’ll probably end up scratching your head quite a bit, provided you stay awake.

300 Rise Of An Empire goes wrong in any ways, predominately a story that is inaccessible to audiences and set pieces that are overly complicated and unwatchable at times. The gore hounds of you reading will be thrilled to know that blood flies around the screen in large dollops. Well, I think it its blood because its nearly black compared to the bright red hues of the originals’ offerings.

Cast wise nobody is breaking a sweat with Sullivan Stapleton being the only one that looks like he decided to do a bit of work. Game Of Thrones’ Lena Headey is surprisingly bland and boring and the same can be said for Eva Green and the rest of the supporting cast.

While Zack Synder is on production duties (and screen play duties too) this time round, his influence is not really that apparent. Its like one day he showed up and told director Noam Murro not to forget to add in some slomo. Obviously Murro misheard him and theres more slow motion sequences here than every movie in the last 10 years combined. They easily add about 3 days to the running time.

If you’re a fan of the original, do yourself a favour and watch that again and avoid this like the plague. Boring, Pointless and brutally executed, the only rise 300: Rise Of An Empire will get is audiences rising out of their seats halfway through. Avoid!