300: Rise of an Empire

Zack Snyder's 300 is so awesome. Gerard Butler gave a career performance as we see Frank Miller's semi-truthful graphic novel come to life on screen. What made 300 work is that it had a simple narrative done perfectly. It knew exactly what it was and it gave a visual experience that was truly unique. Man it kicked ass!

That being said, I didn't have high hopes for the sort-of-sequel 300: Rise of an Empire. Zack Snyder wasn't directing it and of course...no Gerard.

The premise of 300: ROAE is very similar to the original. Athenian general Themistocles leads an army of guys with huge abs into a naval battle against the Persians. There's a TON of blood and a lot of screaming, but not much else.

It could be that I am too attached to the original, but ROAE just didn't do it for me. It was interesting to look at, and the battle scenes were really well filmed (not shaky came garbage), yet it felt like something was missing.Themistocles was played by Sullivan Stapleton who for the most part, is a throwaway character. He didn't have the presence that Leonidas did in 300 and we never really get to know him or his backstory.

Finish your breakfast and eat hardy, for tonight we dine in hell!

The stylistic violence of the original 300 was cool and different. In ROAE, the stylistic violence came off as a rehash with no originality.

Thinking about it, you can tell the influence Zack Snyder had on the quality of 300. His absence is felt with the sequel as it feels like an empty shell of a movie. Sure, its fun to watch and has some cool fights, Eva Green was pretty cool too ; but 300 had a lot more than just that.

Eva Green as Artemisia was pretty cool