'300: Rise Of An Empire' review by Captain Raptor
Zack Snyder's original 300 film deserves to be remembered as a classic. It's basically the perfect action movie, with slick visuals, superlative and delirious fight scenes, and some of the most badass one-liners outside of a Winston Churchill speech. The blood-red icing on the cake is that it actually did a decent enough job of the secondary elements, pesky distractions such as 'acting', 'plot' and 'characterization'. Rise Of An Empire poses an interesting idea - it's sort of a prequel, sort of a sequel, and some if it happens alongside the events of the first film. Anyway, even if it didn't, we're not here for interesting ideas, unless they're ideas about separating one part of someone's body from another.
The circumstances of Rise Of An Empire's plot pretty much dooms it to failure. The Spartans can't be involved because they're fighting elsewhere, so this film revolves around the Greeks, who don't have any of the bloodlust or bravado that made Leonidas and his cohorts so entertaining. The majority of the film takes place on boats, which you may recognize as difficult to stage large-scale melee combat on. Whatever grievances one might have with Snyder as a filmmaker, it's undeniable that he knows his way around action setpieces, something that the new helmsman Noam Murro (who's only previous experience is directing a Sarah Jessica Parker comedy) simply doesn't. The raucous frenzy of its predecessor's fight scenes are almost nowhere to be found, and this is made all the more evident by a reversal of the 'ramping' technique that was made famous in the first film; instead of slowing down the fight and then speeding up the really brutal bits (allowing you to take in all the gory glory of the fight, and then increasing the shock factor of the deathly blows by making their impact seem impossibly strong) as was previously done, the fights are full-flowing, but the climactic hits are in slow motion, which means that a good proportion of the time you can't really see what's happening. This does heighten some of the sadistic pleasure, because blood is spilled continuously in slow motion for your viewing pleasure, but if we're discussing visuals, this film also lacks the comic-book sheen of 300, shot in a variety of murky browns and blues rather than the crisp and lighter colours of the first.
It would be nearly impossible for the action to be totally uninspiring though, and there is one outstanding scene where new protagonist Themistokles charges around a fiery battlefield on a horse. The actor playing him, Sullivan Stapleton, can't conjure up an ounce of charisma, and he plays his role so straight-faced that you wonder if he knew what film he was in. He's definitely incomparable to Gerard Butler's screaming maniac of a protagonist, and the same goes for the hordes of bland supporting characters, who resolutely failed to make any impact. There are death scenes that are practically laughable because the acting is so weak and my attachment to the characters was nonexistent. The film has its saving grace in Eva Green as villainous warrior Artemisia, who throws herself into every scene with energy and manages to hide the weakness of the dialogue in her pantomime sneer. Returning characters Xerxes and Queen Gorgo are also good for the scenes they're in, but they and all the other numerous callbacks serve as a reminder that the first film was so much better than what currently lies before your eyes.
300: Rise Of An Empire barely qualifies as entertainment. Strip away all the charisma, technical expertise, inventiveness, joie de vivre and lunacy of the original and you would still be left with a better film than this mess. It would be bad enough as a stand alone film, but as a follow up to one of the greatest action movies ever made, it's earth-shatteringly disappointing. Eva Green and Leda Headey manage to stave off total boredom, and the action does still evoke something of the nature of 300, but ultimately Rise Of An Empire fundamentally misunderstands what was enjoyable about the first film and makes every wrong choice imaginable.
It would be nearly impossible for the action to be totally uninspiring though, and there is one outstanding scene where new protagonist Themistokles charges around a fiery battlefield on a horse. The actor playing him, Sullivan Stapleton, can't conjure up an ounce of charisma, and he plays his role so straight-faced that you wonder if he knew what film he was in. He's definitely incomparable to Gerard Butler's screaming maniac of a protagonist, and the same goes for the hordes of bland supporting characters, who resolutely failed to make any impact. There are death scenes that are practically laughable because the acting is so weak and my attachment to the characters was nonexistent. The film has its saving grace in Eva Green as villainous warrior Artemisia, who throws herself into every scene with energy and manages to hide the weakness of the dialogue in her pantomime sneer. Returning characters Xerxes and Queen Gorgo are also good for the scenes they're in, but they and all the other numerous callbacks serve as a reminder that the first film was so much better than what currently lies before your eyes.
300: Rise Of An Empire barely qualifies as entertainment. Strip away all the charisma, technical expertise, inventiveness, joie de vivre and lunacy of the original and you would still be left with a better film than this mess. It would be bad enough as a stand alone film, but as a follow up to one of the greatest action movies ever made, it's earth-shatteringly disappointing. Eva Green and Leda Headey manage to stave off total boredom, and the action does still evoke something of the nature of 300, but ultimately Rise Of An Empire fundamentally misunderstands what was enjoyable about the first film and makes every wrong choice imaginable.
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