I loved the first 300 movie, I love Frank Miller’s work in general, so when I heard ages ago that it was getting a second movie, I was very excited.
Now, after a long wait, we finally got the next chapter.
300: Rise of an Empire, does really continue where the last one left off, instead we get a back story for Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) which leads us up to the fate of the 300 Spartans, but running along side this we have what was happening elsewhere.
The Athenians, led by Themistocles (Sullivan Stapleton), are fighting the war on the oceans, up against war ships with sheer size and power.
300 is a fairly bloodthirsty movie, with many of the fight sequences slowed down to super slow mo mode, to show the gruesome body blows, all this works extremely well during the battles.
Probably not as stylised as the first 300, even though we do have several scenes pulled in from the film to fit everything together for the timeline.
You get what you expect with 300: Rise of the Empire, you get with its narrative from  Queen Goro (Lena Headey) bringing us up to date with the war and the creation of the God King, the battle are immense and the 3D is indeed eye-popping with its splashes of blood hitting the screen during its bloody battles!
Bringing back characters such as Dilios (David Wenham) to tie the two films together is nicely done, as is bringing back the traitorous “hunchback”.
Eva Green is great as the warmongering Artemisia and is perfectly suited to her character as she fights her way across the seas against the tiny army of the Athenians Navy.
300 was a stronger movie in my humble point of view, 300: Rise of an Empire, could have been done a little shorter, there are moments when you do think, “get on with it”, but overall it’s a fun movie, a slightly camp movie in parts, but still fun to watch.
With signs that someone has watched the wonderful Spartacus from Starz, with some rather risqué quotes which I will not be repeating, but if you’ve seen Spartacus, you’ll know what I mean.
Go see 300: Rise of an Empire if you loved 300 and are a fan of Spartacus.
Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds. She is also a Cinema reviewer and works with RealD 3D reviewing the latest 3D releases and IMAX, she has also had several articles published in various publications including the first edition of SFW Magazine. In 2015 she became an Award Winning Blogger and also has her website listed as one of the UK’s Top 10 Film Blogs.
