300 : La Naissance d'un empire

Ancient Greece is in peril . . again. This calls for much chest-beating, shouting and cgi blood all over the place.

The sea is the battle arena for this entertaining follow-on to '300', a rant-infested Gerard Butler bloodbath from a few years ago. It's pretty much non-stop grunting, gesticulating and gore for it's entirety, which is quite pleasing.

Of course, most of the rating is for the dual fabulousness of Eva Green and Lena Headey, both having an over-the-top fem-ball amongst the testo-carnage. It was disappointing they didn't settle their differences via a bare-breasted cat-fight, but you can't have everything.

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.

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.

A feast in so many ways! Unbelievably clear, brilliant photography. Very graphic, but never ceases to amaze. The film is ultimately not as exciting or entertaining as its predecessor, but nevertheless still fascinating. Plot flaws galore, it doesn't quite made sense why Themistokles went to Artemisia's ship, as it seemed like a suicide mission, but the sex scene that subsequently followed was indeed one to behold!

The film does become a bit repetitive and the slow motion overdone, but the eye candy more than compensates for this! Sullivan Stapleton makes a likable hero.

How the hell did the producers manage to take a superb movie and savagely sodomize it with this emetic sequel.. Bloody hell.