Noam Murro directs the story of a group of Athenians trying to unite Greece by stopping the invasion of the Persian Empire.
Based on Frank Miller‘s Xerxes is the tale of Themistokles, from killing King Darius, rallying Greece to war and the final epic battle, this is history at its most histrionic.
Sullivan Stapleton plays the lead as Themistocles. Lacking the gravitas Gerrard Butler brought to 300, Stapleton is an amiable screen presence and does well as the less testosterone driven Athenian. Eva Green steals the show as Artemisia. The ultimate woman scorned, it is Green’s performance as the calculating revenge hungry naval commander that drives this movie on. Rodrigo Santoro and Lena Headey reprise their roles as King Xerxes and Queen Gorgo, but they’re nothing more than extended cameos.
A big question for a sequel is “Does it work in its own right?”
In this case, unless you’ve seen 300 there is no point in seeing 300: Rise of an Empire.
Not a sequel, not even a prequel, this is ‘sidequel’. It starts epically massive, builds to ridiculously gigantean and if it wasn’t for the slow-mo this 100 minute spectacular would probably be just 50 minutes.
Strangely it gets off to a sluggish start. It begins at the end, goes back to before 300 then runs parallel to it. As a result the film initially sets up Rodrigo Santoro’s King Xerxes as the main villain, out to avenge his father’s death, only for Xerxes to be pushed to one side to make room for Eva Green’s Artemisia.
300 worked because it was based on a simple premise, a group of men facing insurmountable odds to save their home. Rise of an Empire’s premise is similar but a little bit more abstract, men fighting to protect an ideal in the hope of inspiring others to follow in their example. The problem is, it’s the events in 300, not Rise of an Empire, that lead to the Greek city states following in their example.
That’s the fundamental flaw of the film. Its dramatic turning point doesn’t occur on screen; actually it doesn’t even occur in the film, it occurs in the previous film which came out seven years ago.
A film that rejoices in excess, it may not live up to 300 but it sits perfectly next to it and visually it looks great.
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