Worth the wait
It’s been 7 years since 300 was released. This follow up is the much anticipated sequel, so let’s see now if it was worth the wait.
In 300: Rise of an Empire, Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton) tries to unite Greece against an army of invading Persian forces. Complications arise, as these forces are led by mortal-turned-god Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), and Artemisia (Eva Green), the vengeful, yet incredibly sexy, commander of the Persian navy.
First, much props for creating a kick-ass bad girl evil villain. Artemisia is one part Goth and two parts Amazon, as she storms around, looking broody and crazy. At one point, she has a guy beheaded, then kisses the head, and then flings it away like it’s garbage. Eva Green is so much more than just a Bond girl, and she proved that in her bad assed interpretation of Artemisia. This girl villain was not just your standard leather wearing violent sex fantasy. She had a back-story and a good one at that. They developed the hell out of this character and made her truly three dimensional. No joke, she made the movie.
Ok, enough of my drooling over Eva Green.
Visually, the movie was gritty and gorgeous. The fight scenes were well choreographed and brutally gory, just the way I like them. The sepia-toning over the blood spilling was pure art in contrast and really captured the graphic novel feel of the movie.
I don’t know if it was because Eva Green was so very good, or if the male characters weren’t fleshed out enough, but she really steals the show. In a ‘hero v villain’ war movie, I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to root for the hero.
But I was team Artemisia all the way.
Stapleton was no match for Green’s acting prowess and he came across as a cardboard advertisement for masculinity. He was hard to sympathize with as he really had no outstanding characteristics as far as I remember.
I also didn’t see the point of Xerxes’ character. He mainly just stood on the sidelines and watched Artemisia do all the work. The scene where he obtains his god like powers in a spa (not making this up) is just plain laughable.
The movie is a bloodbath that is a little bit gorier than it needed to be. I mean, I really don’t need slow motion blood spilling to let me know someone is dead. I’m pretty sure I could have worked that conclusion out on my own, especially considering the sword sticking out of their chest.
Weirdly, I actually liked the sequel way more than I liked 300. Of course, I probably liked it more due to the addition of Eva Green as Artemisia. I don’t know if you could tell this from reading the review, but I really, really thought she was fantastic.
Regardless, this is one hell of an entertaining movie. It’s currently sitting at number 1 in the box office, and I think it earned its spot. It’s not smart, it’s a little over the top gory, and it’s certainly not art. But it’s highly entertaining and is guaranteed to keep any action lover glued to the screen. Watch the official trailer below.
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