Eight years after the bloody blockbuster predecessor, 300: Rise of an Empire picks up the shields and spears of the fallen Spartans to continue the story of the infamous Greco-Persian wars. Union Activities Board sponsored a free preview for students at Mission Valley Cinema on Wednesday, two days before the long-awaited sequel premiered.
Directed by Noam Murro with previous screenplay heads Zack Snyder and Kurt Johnston, the cinematography of the sequel follows the graphic novel nature of the original, but this time the blood finds a surface to land on instead of evaporating. The dark shadows and red undertones of Sparta give way to a more vibrant and blue-hue set of Athens as the film shifts its emphasis to the naval battle of Artemisium.
It is hard to call this film a sequel. The plotline gives the back story of events leading up to the battle of Thermopylae and shows what was happening to all of Greece when Leonidas took his 300-strong Spartan army to face Xerxes. It continues the story by portraying the historical account of the battle waged at sea between Themistokles of Athens and Artemisia I of Caria.
Those not familiar with ancient Greek history will be happy to know the stylized gore and selection of six-packs of the original film have returned. While no one is kicked into a pit in slow motion, death-defying leaps are taken onto warships with soldiers swinging silver bladed appendages left and right. Unlike 300, the camera angles sometime take on first person viewing similar to that of a video game. The gaming experience does not end there, however, for many of the soldiers look animated during the fighting scenes. At times, I wondered if the Murro intended for the hand-to-hand combat to mirror that of Assassin’s Creed, though much should not be expected of a movie filmed in its entirety on a massive green screen. Just a warning, the land layout of Athens varies a bit from Murro’s burning image.
The biggest difference in Rise of the Empire is the battle being on water instead of land. Whereas the warfare in 300 is on foot and often indistinguishable, each day of battle at sea has a different element to make it memorable. The separate battle strategies of both armies help to identify the Persians versus the Greeks, and of course, the muscular Greek men are clothed in blue capes and leather in comparison to the black garb and silver masks of the Persians.
Played by Sullivan Stapleton, the Athenian Themistokles is the calmer version of Leonidas of Sparta. Though Sullivan is strong in his role of the Athenian warrior, he does not have the same madness of the Spartan played by Gerard Butler in the first film. Themistokles is more approachable by his men and feels more human to the audience. The bass throated roars of Butler are substituted for the tenor cries of Stapleton when leading the men into battle. Overall, the red-robed Spartan leader had more heart than the blue-robed Themistokles.
Not to be outdone by the semi-naked meat market known as the Greek army, Eva Green gives a devilishly brilliant performance as the cold-hearted naval commander Artemisia. Her white skin, contrasted to her tight, black armor physically compliments her dominatrix attitude as she controls her force with the ferocity of a striking panther.
Her Greek counterpart, Gorgo Queen of Sparta, played by 300’s Lena Headey, carries the wisdom and hidden anger Artemisia lacks but is not one to shy away from crossing blades. These two fierce femme fatales prove that men are not the only fighting forces in the Greek and Persian armies.
Though the minimalistic script is lacking the thickness of the flowing bloodshed, 300: Rise of an Empire is not short of testosterone and graphic gore famous in the original. With more comedic relief in the prequel-sequel, some moments of intense dialogue were followed by wise cracking one-liners not seen before in the serious Spartans.
Moviegoers will learn that the Spartans were not the only men prepared for glory, but may be sad to see they were the only men with true anger and fighting hearts in both films.
