300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE

300: Rise of an Empire (2014)

Grade: B

Starring: Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green, Lena Headley and Rodrigo Santoro

Premise: Under threat of conquest by a massive Persian invasion force, Athenian military commander Themistokles tries to rally his countrymen in the fight against icy Persian naval commander Artemisia.

Rated R for strong, bloody violence and gore, nudity, sexuality and some language

         -   THIS. IS. SPARTAAAAA!!!!

         -   Our arrows will blot out the sun.        Then we will fight in the shade.

         -   You, what is your profession?

         -   Tonight, we dine in Hell!

         -   This will not be over quickly; you will not enjoy this.

         -   GIVE THANKS, MEN! TO LEONIDAS AND THE BRAVE THREE HUNDRED!! TO VICTORY!!!!!!

            It’s been eight full years, but some of the images, moments, and sounds are as fresh today as they ever were. Upon its release in March 2006, 300 became a Must-See movie, with addicting sound bytes, hyper-kinetic visuals and spectacular gory details that grabbed enough of the contemporary film-going imagination to allow writer/director Zack Snyder’s movie to become one of the Holy Trinity of modern swords-and-sandals epics, alongside Oscar-winners Gladiator and Braveheart.

            I didn’t see the entire movie until some four years after it came out, and, even thought I recently bought it on DVD, I wouldn’t dare to claim it’s anything close to Gladiator or Braveheart. That said, some of its best moments do have a must-see-and-enjoy zesty bite to them, whether that’s the sight of a marching Spartan army pushing a lesser army right off a cliff or a buffed-up Gerard Butler kicking a Persian messenger down a well (not to mention, of course, Lord of the Rings vet David Wenham’s awesome closing speech). Having just walked out of its somewhat unlikely sequel, 300: Rise of an Empire, I’ll say this: the new film doesn’t quite have the punch of its predecessor at its best, whether that’s because the visuals aren’t as groundbreaking or the performances aren’t nearly as outsize, but it’s a better movie overall. Some of the ickier, more time-wasting types of details that stuffed the original (the slutty oracle, the nipple-tweaking ephors, the amputee orgy) have been cut, the depth of the film has been enhanced with some intriguing back-stories, and we get not one but two engaging new characters. Based on another Frank Miller graphic novel (“Xerxes”), and written by two of the original’s three screenwriters (Snyder and Kurt Johnstad), Rise of an Empire actually came close to winning my full-hearted admiration. It should easily retain fans of the first 300, and it’s certainly capable enough to gain some new ones.

 Plot

Almost half of Rise of an Empire actually deals with things that happened before Leonidas and a certain number of his fellow Spartans ever went marching off to Thermopylae. About ten years before that invasion, the Persians tried to invade Greece but were stopped almost right away, when a massive Greek army led by Themistokles of Athens (Sullivan Stapleton) assaulted them just as they were landing their ships at Marathon. Such was the destruction and disorientation of the Persians that Themistokles was able to fire an arrow at their command ship, hitting Persian emperor Darius (Igal Naor) in the chest. The Persians retreated, and Darius died shortly after, passing the empire into the hands of his handsome but untested son, Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro). While Themistokles was being declared a Greek hero for all time, the brooding young Persian emperor began getting instructions from fierce, slinky warrior Artemisia (Eva Green, typically great), who had been his late father’s most trusted advisor. Soon, his ears full of Artemisia’s assertions that he’s an immortal god, and his face and body transformed by a variety of pagan rituals, Xerxes decides it’s time for another surge across the Agean Sea to attack Greece.

When word of another impending invasion reaches Greeks’ ears, all eyes immediately turn to living legend Themistokles, who’s been trying to live out his days in peace. A skilled commander on land and sea, Themistokles readies his navy, but he also seeks to rally support among neighboring Greek city states. Unfortunately, as informed by the absent Leonidas’ widow-to-be, Queen Gorgo (Game of Thrones’ Lena Headley), Sparta won’t be marching off to fight any time soon at the orders of an Athenian. Themistokles is a skilled-enough tactician that he’s able to beat the Persians in a few early naval battles, even with a smaller force, but these disappointments only make the conflict personal to Artemisia, a truly gifted warrior. With her men shaken and her emperor doubting her abilities, she decides to bring the full weight of the massive Persian navy down on Themistokles and force him to flat-out beat her, if he can.

What Works?

Surprisingly, a lot. I’m not going to claim that Miller, Snyder and Johnstad have their ancient Greek history exactly right, but hearing about the build-up to the invasion that led the Spartans to head off to Thermopylae is interesting, as is learning how Xerxes went from a normal-looking dude to the bejeweled, golden-hued figure he is in the movies’ marketing campaign. The visuals in this sequel are, again, fantastic, with only a noticeable over-reliance on video-game-quality blood splatters taking points off some really invigorating early battles, which actually involve timing and strategy in addition to swinging swords and thrusting spears.

The movie’s obviously more interested in action and style than character, but Rise of an Empire has a serviceable supporting cast. Rodrigo’s been given a smaller role (and his deep, booming voice doesn’t sound nearly as ridiculous), but Headley’s welcome in her mostly stone-faced return (this is no judgment on her abilities, though; her supporting part in the original 300 was a mere appetizer, and a springboard to her now-trademark role as the dark-hearted Queen Cersei on HBO’s Game of Thrones). Fellow 300 vets David Wenham (as Spartan soldier Dilios), Andrew McTiernan (as treacherous hunchback Ephialtes), and Andrew Pleavin (as Daxos, a military lead from another Greek city state) poke their heads briefly into the action, and, though it’s easy to miss Gerard Butler, Michael Fassbender and Vincent Regan, we get some decent-enough rapport from a father/son warrior team played by Callan Mulvey and Jack O’Connell.

All eyes, though, are on the two major players, Leonidas-substitute Themistokles, played by relative unknown Sullivan Stapleton, and badass girl Artemisia, played by the indomitable Eva Green. Stapleton doesn’t nearly have Butler’s undeniable magneticism, even if he gets to make the same kind of fatalistic rallying speeches (“We choose to die on our feet, rather than live on our knees!” is the new "tonight, we dine in hell"). He’s solid, though, and—as perhaps the only character who’s not driven by bloodlust, vengeance, pride, wrath or some other relatively distasteful emotion—he gives us a reliable center to watch. Green steals the show, though, and she does it with ease. The French beauty has been turning heads since her breakthrough in Bernardo Burtollucci’s The Dreamers, and has built up a low-key but impressive filmography as the sexy outsider in Kingdom of Heaven, Casino Royale and Dark Shadows. There’s nothing low-key about her slithering, fierce-eyed performance here, as she kills man after man with dismaying ease, and, in a bit of feminine wile that would test any man’s will, attempts to seduce an enemy to join her cause at one pivotal moment. This scene--Let's just say, if there’s any man in the audience who can watch this particular scene and easily dismiss the sultry, green-eyed, fair-skinned Green’s appeal…well, he’s made of tougher stuff than the rest of us. She makes this particular onscreen individual pay for it, though, hitting him later with a superbly-debilitating put-down that ought to be quoted by spurned women against their exes for some time.

What Doesn’t Work?

On first thought, I can’t name much about Rise of an Empire that doesn’t work, but maybe that’s only because the movie actually doesn’t try all that much. It’s all strategy, battle, or Eva Green chewing scenery. I will say that it’s awkward for the film to start before the Spartan slaughter at Thermopylae and take so long to catch up to it, when this is, in fact, a sequel. There’s also no denying that, if Snyder and Co would jettison the slowed-down-for-awesomeness effect technique they’re fond of using during fight scenes, the movie could be about 20 minutes shorter, and that much more watchable.

Content

As was true of the original, not much has been censored. There’s a lot (a lot, A LOT) of blood and dismemberment shown on the battlefield, and, whenever possible, female nudity. A particularly-intimate non-battle sequence is also shown in particularly intimate fashion—sensitive audience members are unlikely to enjoy a graphic sex scene, let alone one that's less about passion and intimacy than it is about domination and control.

The Bottom Line

I was surprised by how much I liked 300: Rise of an Empire. It’s not perfect, and it probably won’t make funs of anyone who didn’t like the original 300, but with some huge, epic battles and some interesting characters (and the scorching hot Eva Green), it’s pretty darn entertaining.

300: Rise of an Empire (2014)

Directed by Noam Murro

Written for the Screen by Zack Snyder and Kurt Johnstad

Based on the Graphic Novel “Xerxes” by Frank Miller

Rated R

Length: 102 minutes