Review of 300: Rise of an Empire (2014) by Ben T — 19 Feb 2016

300 Rise of an Empire is a sequel to the modern classic 300. The first 300 is a really good film, it's really entertaining, it has great action, it was one of those films that made the slow motion popular and it's just a really well made and actually good film.

300 Rise of an Empire follows the if it ain't broke then don't fix it and it works. The acting in this film is actually pretty good. The main lead doesn't have much character and is nowhere near as charismatic and likeable as Gerard Butler but he's still a badass and is great in the action sequences.

Lena Headey is in the film more than I was expecting and basically plays a more likeable and badass version of her Game of Thrones character. Jack O'Connell I didn't know was here but he does a good job although his character is cliche.

The show stealer of this film is Eva Green. She completely hams it up here and is so over the top and ticks lots of the cliche villain boxes and she's great. This is the most fun I think I've ever seen Eva Green in a film and she is the best aspect of this film.

This film is also really well directed, before this the director had just directed comedy shows but he transitioned very well to the action genre. The action here is great and it's what you would be used to in a 300 movie.

It's very over the top, very slow motion and very bloody and gory. I loved the end action sequence especially. The cgi here is alright. The backgrounds and blue screen mostly look great. The blood is very overly cgi and it's extremely noticeable and looks worse than the blood in the original 300.

This film also has some dumb but pretty cool moments, like the guy riding a horse along a boat. The ending of this film I had a problem with, simply because you don't find out the fate of a lot of main characters which is really annoying.

This film also has some boring segments with the Persian King which I didn't care about. This film is brilliantly lit, there's lots of good lighting in the film which makes the film look fantastic.

There isn't a lot to say about this film, if you like the first 300 you will most likely enjoy this film but it isn't as good. This is a good film but it's not really anything special. B-.