LA Movie Review- 300: Rise of an Empire

 *Warning, there are spoilers for 300 in this review*

   Greek general Themistokles attempts to band together the rest of Greece in an effort to stop the conquering God-King, Xerxes. Noam Murro takes over the directing reigns from Zack Snyder in this prequel/sequel to 300.
   300 was known for its graphic novel-inspired visuals, slow motion, and bloody action. While Rise of an Empire has all of that, it is missing an essential element- a hero we can root for. The characters are more important than the story. If you don't care about the characters then you won't care about their story. That is the biggest problem that this movie has. In 300 we saw the life of King Leonidas from his birth to his death. We knew all there was to know about the character. In this film we learn very little about General Themistokles. There was nothing particularly special about him. In fact, it would have been impossible to differentiate between him or any of the soldiers if they didn't stick a blue cape on him. Sullivan Stapleton plays the generic general who just makes you long for Gerard Butler as Leonidas. Eva Green, however, is just the opposite. She overshadows Xerxes as the true villain of the story, Artemisia. Her performance is the best part of the movie. Eva's character is a damaged individual who is as manipulate as she is deadly. Eva really plays up the damaged part and makes you care about her character the most.
    Visually this film is similar to the original. Everything appears to have been shot on a green screen. The movie is just as violent and bloody as expected. The action for the most part looks good, but at times feels like a video game. The constant slow motion and CGI blood ensures that.
   The screenplay was written by Zack Snyder and Kurt Johnstad. It replaces most of the land action from the first one with naval battles. It feels unnecessary, but to their credit it was something we had never before seen in this world. Their screenplay is a generic one, which includes plot holes and rewrites the ending of the first movie. You read that correctly. They changed the ending from 300, which in my opinion, was much superior to the one it was replaced with. That film ended with10,000 Spartans commanding 30,0000 Greeks into battle against Xerxes' army. Apparently that wasn't good enough so they changed it in favor of something less hopefull.
   300: Rise of an Empire is not as entertaining as 300. It isn't everything you loved about the first but does have some of those things. The movie definitely benefits from Eva Green's performance, but it doesn't change the fact that this is a disappointing movie. If you turn your brain off then you may be able to find enjoyment in this movie. 300 set the bar high and this movie just didn't hit it.
3/5