300 : La Naissance d'un empire

Now the professional reviewers seemed to pan this before it had any chance. In some ways it happened to the prequel also. As a fan of the prequel I was willing to give this the benefit of the doubt. I'm happy I did but it's not a patch on the original.

We have here a film that focuses on another clan of Greek fighters battling against Xerxes' men, except this time it's on warships, so it's really '300 on the Sea'. Some old faces but the opposing captains of our sides this time are the wonderful Eva Green and the less convincing Sullivan Stapleton.

The film is wall to wall action and you'll be enthralled. It's even more violent than the first. The bad thing is that the dialogue is really poor and the story not as riveting, engrossing and rousing as the first. Say what you like but there's a lot of wonderful points in the first that is what has made it a cult favourite.

If anything the flaws of this highlight just what was best in the old one. The lead ain't no patch on Gerald Butler and is outshone by Eva Green as the temptress Persian battle queen. In fairness to our new lead, he is purposely more human than the old King Leonidas, and is a great warrior without the Spartan attitude. Yet that misses out what was quite a strong point of the previous film.

In many way its a paint by numbers sequel as such (although the timeframe of the film mostly parallels that of the first). If you enjoyed the first and and want more then you'll find it here. For everyone else, probably you won't miss much if you let this one pass by. For me as a fan of the original, it was fair enough but not in the same league as the first.

Not as good as the first one, but still watchable.

This is a flawed sequel-prequel to 300 focusing on Themistocles the legendary leader of the Athenian forces who killed King Darius during the battle of Marathon. The King's son Xerxes swears revenge as he is transformed into a campy looking warrior king and launches total war on the Greeks. He is supported by a female Persian General of Greek origin, Artemisia (Eva Green) who wants revenge on the Greeks who killed her parents and raped her as a child.

Themistocles has got together a band of farmers to train and take on the Persian army in some crafty sea battles.

300 the sequel is all over the place in tone and consistency. It lacks the graphic novel look of the original. Its inconsistent, whereas the Spartans were born and trained fighters, here the farmers suddenly become victorious warriors as if the screenwriters have a grudge against Persians or modern day Iran!

The Greeks might value freedom but raped and enslaved a little girl. The Persians might value autocratic rule but made a female Greek, a general.

Even Lena Headey the narrator and the wife of Gerard Butler in the original is transformed into a tough warrior Queen. The violence is bloody and brutal but the film has a whiff of homo erotic campiness mixed with bland acting leaving only Eva Green to steal her scenes as Artemesia the ruthless fighter and temptress.

What I really liked about the first movie was that it had a unique feeling never seen before or since. It was like if someone would tell this legendary epic tale around a fire like in old times and while the story was told you had the surreal images like if they came out of the mind of a young lad imagining all this in his head.

This epic effect is completely gone in this one... You never get that feeling no even for a minute. This one is more like the show Spartacus. Of course it was a deception for me but it could still have been a really good movie despite that. They kept the look, the colours, the exaggerated fighting moves, a bit of the mythical stuff and such. At least it still looks like the first one.

The big problems are the poor choice of actors and the fact that the story is pretty lame, unimpressive, boring and banal.

The main actor isn't bad but he's not special in any ways and he really doesn't look Greek, most Greeks don't look Greek, in fact the more they have an important role the less they look Greek. Greeks are not Americans... For example this guy called Hans Matheson... Look him up on IMDb ... He looks like a young British RedCoat or something... Certainly not a Greek soldier...

Anyways... I gave it 7 because being related to the first one still makes it a watchable movie but it sure was a deeply flawed failed sequel.

I can't understand why Zack Snyder didn't direct this sequel, and how someone who has never directed an action sequence before and just one feature film can be entrusted with a production of this magnitude. That would already be a recipe for disaster, even though in reality Snyder was supervising.

In an attempt to live up to it's predecessor, 300: Rise of An Empire is action-packed, presents impressive visuals and is very bloody. In fact there is more action, more blood, and more nudity than in the original 300. As for the plot, there really isn't much to chew on. A naval commander, Themistocles is supposedly trying to reunite Greece. Since the story takes place before, during and after King Leonidas leads his men to fight the Persians, it can be hard to follow at times.

Most of the acting was mediocre and couldn't quite compensate for the weaknesses in the story. The Australian actor cast as Themistocles in my opinion was a very bad choice, and comes nowhere close to what Gerard Butler did as King Leonidas in 300. He just doesn't bring that rugged heroic presence on screen as is expected. Interestingly I read somewhere that director Noam Murro insisted it would be Sullivan Stapleton who played this character, claiming he was 'the one'. Eva Green on the other hand is plays an excellent villain as Artemisia.