300 Rise of an Empire: still an alpha male tale

I love 300; I thought it was tastefully done, as if I was reading the graphic novel. When I saw the trailer of Rise on an Empire last year, it brought back memories and I was looking forward to see the naval battle instead of land. However, once I found out it was not Zack Snyder who direct, but Noam Murro, I was bit disappointed. After all, I enjoyed most of Snyder's work (including Sucker Punch, though not Man of Steel) but never heard of Murro yet. Never mind, I told myself; I would still gladly pay to watch this.

300 was a simple alpha male tale of 300 Spartan warrior and their King standing against huge Persian amry led by God King Xerxes. Of course, they all died in the end but it was a magnificent battle, none the less.  Rise of an empire is not a sequel but a story running concurrent with 300. It did gave an insight into how Xerxes came to his level of tyranny and madness, and it was a interesting side story. While Xerxes was fighting Spartan, his navy commander Artemesia attempted to battle the rest of Greece in the sea. Only Athean general Themistokles and his small fleet stood in between her and Greece. Expect the usual early victory, middle fall and defeat and rise back to final victory. No surprise there in the storyline department.


The action sequence is great, at least in the beginning. Very picturesque and artistically done in the beginning, very MTV style. However, reaching the end of the movie, I felt "jelak" with the same style used over and over again. Too much blood splatter around and too much use of slo-mo in between action sequence. By the way, the CG was good except of the blood splatter everytime limbs/ heads/ torso was cut. The action sequences are good, though the star of the show is the tactical naval battle which is not just hit/punch/cut/arrows. All the girls will go ga-ga over all the muscular actors, however, I must say Eva Green, one of the only 2 female in the whole show, carried her role very well. She looks gorgeous at the same time, but was believable as the vengeful general who will stop at nothing to burn Greece to ashes. Sullivan Stapleton was OK as the male lead, though I still find the Spartan more macho. After all, he is still an Athean. Or maybe he goes around talking about democracy. Or maybe it is just the missing beard. Hmmmm...


This round, they tried injecting more layers into the story, which works to a certain extent. The confusion on democracy, the power of freedom, the history of Xerxes. However, it is still an alpha male story. Muscles, actions, fighting for freedom, etc. Did I enjoyed it? Yes, I did, though not as much as 300. Now I hope there is third movie....

ratings: 3 poink!
comments: now, I must look for the graphic novel....and as much as the Athean is the hero, it is still the Spartan who saves the day in the end, "THIS IS SPARTA!!!!"