300: Rise of an Empire
Release: 07 March 2014
Starring: Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green, Lena Headey, and Rodrigo Santoro
Director: Noam Murro
Genre: Action, Drama, war
Length: 102 min.
Rating: R
Basic Premise
Based on the comic mini-series Xerxes by Frank Miller, this is the continuation of the story started in 300 (2006). Themistokles must unite Greece in order to battle Xerxes and his blood-thirsty general Artemisia and keep Greece free.
Personal Note
It’s been a while since I’ve done a movie review post on my blog, but I felt this movie deserved one.
Review
This story is not a sequel to 300 because the story overlaps. While the events of Rise of an Empire are taking place, so too are the events of 300. Know that first. If it’s been a while since you’ve seen 300, you might want to refresh your memory before going to see Rise of an Empire.
If you liked 300, then you will definitely like Rise of an Empire. The story follows the Athenians instead of the Spartans this time around, which is why the men are wearing blue instead of crimson. That was my major hangup when watching the trailers because it made no sense after 300 made a big deal about the crimson of a Spartan…except the men in this move weren’t Spartans.
It’s the same story-telling style, same pacing (slow motion emphasis of particular scenes, etc), and the same gripping and bloody action of its predecessor. Like 300, Rise of an Empire earned that R rating. There is only one f-bomb the whole movie and several scenes of partial nudity as well (for the parents in the audience).
Though the movie was full of battling men, there was a edge of girl power that I absolutely loved. The strongest general in the Persian army is Artemisia — a woman. She is competent and feared and a warrior. As well, Lena Headey’s character Queen Gorgo had a much more empowering role this movie. She was QUEEN. Not a woman whose husband was king but an actual queen. In charge and running shit. Not only that, she was a Spartan queen, which meant she was kicking ass.
I look forward to owning this movie on DVD and watching it back-to-back with 300. I also look forward to seeing if there will be a third. The rule of storytelling dictates there has to be a third, but we’ll see.