300: Rise of an Empire

This review may contain spoilers.

Alright any hardcore fans reading this I am going to shame myself greatly and confess that I never saw the first 300, this was it for me. I think 300: Rise of an Empire deserves a 7/10.

Although I haven't seen 300 I felt this lived up to it's legacy completely. The action scenes in this film were incredibly well choreographed. The effects were most certainly jaw dropping. The costumes were very realistic or badass looking. The cinematography was some of the best I'd seen this year.

Andrew Tiernan, who plays Ephialtes, was a returning cast member who brought a perverted grotesque simpering minion to the film that was brilliant. Rodrigo Santoro, who played Xerxes, was another returning cast memeber who exuded power and became a very intricate character in this film. Sullivan Stapleton, who played Themistokles, was a fantastic leading man and drove the ups and downs of the entire film; his gruff demeanour was a perfect follow up to the bar set by Gerard Butler. Lena Headey, who played Queen Gorgo, was a returning cast member with a vengeance; she had some of the best lines and it was great to see her in a brilliant action scene. Eva Green, who played Artemisia, was easily some of the best acting in the film; she had such malice and venom in her that she became a better antagonist than Xerxes.

This film's plot structure let it down, jumping from prequel to concurrent with 300 to sequel but also falling on flashback and becoming quite muddled and confused. The plot itself isn't very intricate and kind of runs through minimal dialogue and story to reach battle after battle. The effects slipped in some places, especially in green screen backdrops which looked fake at times.

Alright Hans Matheson, Callan Mulvey, David Wenham and Jack O'Connell; who played Aesyklos, Scyllias, Dilios and Calisto respectfully were all weak supporting cast members and brought this film down.