Snyder’s film had a similar initial hook, and carrying on its legacy the follow-up likewise employs this style to the point of drudgery. Augmented by an gorgeous use of 3D, the film’s opening Battle of Marathon is a living painting of color, depth and bloodshed, frequently slowed to amplify the combat’s intensity. More streamlined in delivering thrills and better at weaving in story instead of pausing for exposition, the companion piece improves on much of the original, but not without falling into some of the same old Snyder traps.ĭirected by Noam Murro, whose “Wonder Boys” rip-off “Smart People” was one of 2008’s worst films, “Rise of an Empire” is consistent with the visually arresting action style of its predecessor. Though the film provides cameos from “300” casualties King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and Stelios (Michael Fassbender) as they briefly strut across the frame, “Rise of an Empire” is content to acknowledge Sparta’s small yet vital role in the overall war between Greece and Persia and focus on the big picture. His supporting players are little more than an anonymous tableau of shirtless, grunting dude-itude.Not your average sequel, “300: Rise of an Empire” takes a “Bourne Legacy” approach where the story runs parallel to that of “300.” Co-written by “300” director Zack Snyder and based on Frank Miller’s not yet completed graphic novel “Xerxes,” the film occurs before, during and after the Battle of Thermopylae in a so-so effort to expand its epic nature. Despite a visibly sincere effort, Stapleton is a non-starter as the brave Athenian trying to unite the city-states of Greece in defending their experiment in democracy. It sounds like a blast, doesn’t it? But “Rise of an Empire” is no fun at all - even those famous six-pack abs from “300” seem to be missing a can or two in this desperate attempt to up an already dubious ante.
#Sequel to the movie 300 series
When the film isn’t sloppily directed, it’s a series of lazy filmmaking tics, including fetishistic slow-motion shots of blood, water and sweat, as well as sundry dismemberments, impalings and decapitations. Suffice it to say, things don’t go exactly according to plan.īased on a still-to-be-published graphic novel by Frank Miller, “Rise of an Empire” has been adapted by Israeli commercial director Noam Murro with alternately crude and canny fealty to Snyder’s hyperventilating original: A series of smashing, crashing seafaring set pieces interrupted by variations on Henry V’s Crispin’s Day speech (or maybe the “ Gentlemen, to bed” gag from Steve Coogan’s “ The Trip”), this chapter is a dull, monochromatic affair, its dingy gray palette barely enlivened by syrupy blood that spurts, squirts and gushes with metronomic regularity. In “Rise of an Empire,” Artemisia has been sent by Persian god-king Xerxes (a blinged-out Rodrigo Santoro) to defeat Greece and avenge the death of Xerxes’s father, Darius, at the hands of the soldier Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton). While no big stars are likely to emerge from the speechifying and gruesome swordplay of this installment, the film does feature at least one genuinely memorable performance by Eva Green, here playing Persian naval genius Artemisia with such gothic bloodlust that the only things she’s missing are fangs and a coffin to sleep in. “ 300: Rise of an Empire” isn’t a sequel to “300” as much as a parallel-quel, catching up with the Athenian-led Grecian forces at the same time that “300’s” King Leonidas and his Spartans are getting their toned tushies kicked at Thermopylae. A super-stylized mashup of graphic novel narrative and video-game stagecraft, “300” was a huge hit, launching Fassbender into much finer things (including a longtime collaboration with director Steve McQueen) and star Gerard Butler into a Dante-esque limbo of forgettable rom-coms and middling action flicks. In that film, director Zack Snyder put his bombastic gifts to use in bringing ancient Greece, if not to life, then to some kind of mesmerizingly bizarro, synthetic version thereof.
Gazing at actor Michael Fassbender’s fine tuxedoed self as he celebrated “ 12 Years a Slave’s” historic win at the Academy Awards earlier this week, it was hard to believe that seven years had gone by since we first met the dreamy Irish actor, when he played a brave Spartan soldier in the cult pulp classic “ 300.”
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