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| Review by Clay N Ferno |
The sequel to the 2006 epic comic book film 300 is an impressive one, taking place at a similar timeline to the first movie as Greeks defend their land against Persia.
The beginning of the movie shows the mystical origin of the God King Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) as well as the rise of Athenian general Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton).
In a refreshing breath of balance not seen often in Hollywood action movies today are the two female leads, Persian ally Artemisia (Eva Green) and widow of King Leonidas, Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey).
At points, it seems the God King Xerxes’ origin was a red herring, allowing these ladies to shine and spill copious amounts of blood with their own blades, while the golden king sat on the safety of this throne—quite literally the backseat for this movie.
Embrace the 3D version of this movie if you can! “Tonight we dine…in spectacle”!
Though not a requirement for enjoyment of the movie, most FOG! readers may want to give themselves a refresher on the original movie, directed by Zack Snyder and based on the comic book series by Frank Miller. Xerxes by Miller isn’t even out yet, so fans of the writer artist will need to wait.
The closest you can even get is a preview in Dark Horse Presents #1!
Noam Murro (Smart People) directs the sequel with the screenplay written by Snyder and fellow 300 scribe Kurt Johnstad. We are used to Venn diagrams for timelines when it comes to TV (Star Trek: The Next Generation with Voyager & Deep Space Nine), but rarely if ever in movies.
In fact the action in this movie moves past the *SPOILER!* 300 fallen Spartans in Rise of an Empire as if the scenes for both of the movies were shot at the same time. I can’t help but point this out as a cinematic and creative feat of note.
To see two large scale movies combined into one experience is tricky from a writer’s perspective alone, let alone the whole production.
Well played, Spartans!
In contrast to the original, there is slightly more meat on the bone story-wise. Whereas 300 was about defense of Sparta and the betrayal by Ephialtes, 300: Rise of an Empire is about the rise of the Persians and how different, intellectual and romantic the Athenian Themistokles is as a general in contrast to the brute force of the Spartan Leonidas.
This movie is also about how a young Greek Artemisia allies herself with Persia after being raped on a Greek slave ship as a child. Artemisia trains to become a fierce warrior, alongside stepbrother Xerxes and impresses the Persian King Darius (Igal Naor) with her blood thirst. Queen Gorgo also steps into her late husband’s sandals as the narrator of the tale, and takes revenge on the black and gold Persian army.
Much of the action takes place versus impressive Persian sea vessels (seen crashing ashore in 300) as the Greek navy’s wooden ships use a circling the wagon strategy against the gigantic numbers of the Persians. As sea battles go, with slaves being whipped a la Ben Hur these are amazing complete with multiple actors battling with swords and shields on the sea, explosions and even a damn horse. Did we mention that some of the corpses are bait for mystical sea monsters?
If history class was ever this fun, I would still be in school.
In the family of the God King Xerxes, it appears as if Artemisia truly wears the pants. She commands the Persian navy with an iron whip while looking to have a man by her side that she can trust. With sly cunning, she even gets Themistokles to be that man. One of the few comic moments in the film happen here. Artemisia comes out as the star of Rise of an Empire, a villainess given as much power, if not more, as the strong men of the Greek army she faces down.
In a quite deliberate parallel to 300, the father and son relationship is explored in the context of battle.
In 300, Spartan Captain Artemis witnesses his son Astinos die, driving him to a maniacal killing spree of the Persians with his helmet off. Flipping the coin on this, as the Athenians are going off to fight, young Calisto (Jack O’Connell, Skins) joins the army and the battlefront. Here, he follows his father Scyllias (Callan Mulvey, Zero Dark Thirty) to battle and we see which family member is to be carried home with their shield, or upon it.
Queen Gorgo’s story bookends the picture as she motivates what are now her Spartan soldiers.
What this movie did correctly with the casting of such strong actresses was to focus on one as a strong but evil enemy in black and to contrast her with a widow summoning the same strength as her husband, dressed in white, to face the Persians. We really get a two for one here. This is exactly 200% more gender equality in this movie than in most movies these days.
To call Green and Gorgo the stars of this movie wouldn’t be far off. Though, technically, both the Queen and Xerxes are important to the story as supporting characters but do not chew up enough screen time to be considered leading roles.
My plans for the weekend are set, my archery-loving better half and myself will be going back to the theatre for a second viewing, in 3D, to imagine being drenched with blood and splashed with Mediterranean sea water. We’re officially deeming this the weekend of 300!
Miller can take his time on the comic, we can wait at least until the Blu-ray for our read along session.
