Review of 300: Rise of an Empire (2014) by Thebeast007 — 26 Apr 2014

300 rise of an empire ,is masterfully crafted,brilliantly choreographed,interesting war film.It stays true to the original 300 ,it maintains the unique look and feel of the first movie but makes it even bigger, badder and bolder.and while it's short 1 and a half length keeps it from showing its true self and keeps you wishing for more this is still one of the most badass,visually arresting films i've ever seen.

As a big fan of the first movie,i was really excited to see this movie,especially after hearing this is a prequel-sequel companion of the first one,the events take place before ,during and after the 300,which itself is a unique spin ,that you don't see that often.The performances given by Sullivan Stapleton and Eva Green are terrific especially Eva Green's Artemisia ,she is a scary,crazy,seductive and not-apologetic,you don't want to mess with this bad girl.As for Sullivan's Themistocles he's great and inspirational speeches ,they may not be on par with Gerrard Butler's Leonidas,but he definetely fights a lot better than him.

The story itself is quite good and intriguining ,sure it's no masterpiece but hey its based off a graphic novel done by Frank Miller,so you can forgive it.The backstory of characters is thankfully given so you can have a lot more reasons to care for them and even Artemisia has a surprisingly heartbreaking past that gets you to understand her nature and why she truly wants revenge on Greece.

But it's the stylistic action and gore that gets people to watch 300,and from that standpoint the movie is glorious amounts of kick-ass fun.The director Noam Murro maintains Zack Snyder's perfect feel of all-out war ,he adds more slo-mo shots that perfectly captures the fighting skill of Themistocles,within the first 5 minutes you already get a fight scene ,the movie gets this well prepared rythm of telling the story and embracing the action.The blood effects might not be for everyone to like but I certainly got used to it and started to enjoy the hell out of it.The sea battles also dynamically change up to combat and make it a damn fun movie and not repetitious.There is an end fight which is both a dissapointment and satisfaction.it's satisfying because it feels extremely epic with Themistocles riding a horse jumping from ship-to-ship tearing Persians limb from limb and ending the fight with Artemisia,now the problem of it is that it ends very abruptly and makes you wish just a tad bit more but maybe in a sequel.

And it definetely will have a sequel with box office surpassing the budget and the box office of the first movie,this epic series is going to go on for a long time.300 rise of an empire is a MUST SEE for the fans of the original and fans of action movies,it's a wild ride from start to finish that does not slow down during talks ,but ends with an open note.

P.S. if you get a chance to see it in 3D absolutely see it like that,it's a real visual treat.