300: Rise of an Empire (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Noam Murro
	Actors: Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green (Casino Royale), Lena Headey (300, Game of Thrones TV-series, Dredd)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Epic
	Conditions of visioning: 15.03.2014, CINEMA theater, 3D
Synopsis: Greek general Themistokles (Stapleton) leads the charge against invading Persian forces led by mortal-turned-god Xerxes and Artemisia (Green), vengeful commander of the Persian navy.
Review: I was not planning to rush to the cinemas to see the prequel to the hit 300 that had Gerald Butler as Leonidas and was directed by Zack Snyder (Watchmen, Dawn of the Dead), but I read that it was equal to the first movie. I liked 300 but found that all the good ideas came from the original graphic novel by Frank Miller, and the movie was showing a succession of nice scenes but lacked some work of adaptation. Rise of an Empire is based on the as-yet-unreleased Frank Miller graphic novel Xerxes. It is not a prequel like I was lead to believe, but rather tells the whole story around what happens in 300, including the re-birth of Xerxes, the events that lead the god-kind to march his army towards Greece, parallel story to the tale of Leonidas and continuation of it. For this I liked the movie. I liked the first half-hour (introduction of strong characters like Xerxes, Themistokles and Artemisia) in spite of the abuse of extra-slow motions. The naval scenes in which the boats ride the waves like if they were mountainsides are impressive. And the close-to-the-ground sword fight scenes are improved compared to 300: they have more depth, maybe thanks to the 3D. Then my interest faded a little but was kept high enough by sporadic apparition of characters from 300. And I found the ending satisfying, so it left me with a good opinion. However, I would prefer a good old peplum to such a mix of fantasy and comic book characters. The movie is good-looking but the ultra-iconic images create a distance with the viewer.
Rating: 5 /10