Greek Tragedy

300: Rise of an Empire

For the last few years, it seems that the comic books produced by writer/artist Frank Miller have become a pretty hot commodity; starting in 2005 with the popular Sin City (directed in part by Frank Miller) and a few years later (2007) with 300. This year Miller’s work has been tapped twofold with Sin City: A Dame to Kill For being released in August and earlier this year with 300: Rise of an Empire.

Rise of an Empire can’t really be described as a prequel or a sequel. The reason this is because the events that take place in this film run parallel with the events of 300. For those of you who may not have seen 300, the films plot is a fictionalized retelling of the heroic 300 Spartans who gave their lives to slow down Xerxes and his invading Persian army at Thermopylae.  Rise is told through the Athenians (people from Athens) point of view. Where 300 was more of the ‘army’ perspective, Rise is more of the ‘naval’ aspect.

This film has said to be based on Frank Miller’s sequel to 300, aptly named Xerxes. However, Xerxes has not even been released yet nor (as of this publishing) is it close to completion. So I am going to go out on a limb here and say this is very loosely based version of the book. So what we have here is another Lost World fiasco. The Lost World (novel) was not finished when the film version began production.  Due to this, the film adaption never gained the magic of Crichton’s imagination that is in the novel. Rise also suffers the same fate. 300 shows the Spartan pride and their voracity as warriors.  300 also depicts a sense of urgency in the warriors protecting their homeland. Rise tries to convey that same urgency, but falls stale due to the actors themselves. This comes mainly from the lead actor, Sullivan Stapleton (Cinemax’s Strike Back). Stapleton plays Themistocles (I can’t pronounce that either) and despite maybe one inspirational speech, I was wondering the whole movie why he was in charge. Themistocles has trouble bringing the people of Greece together to fight as one nation (especially in Sparta, where he is turned away like a disciplined child) and shows very little strategic insight. Much the same can be said for the main villain, Artemisia, who is played by Eva Green (Casino Royale, Dark Shadows). Though this is not because of Green’s acting, I had a problem with how her character was used by the director. Throughout the film, Artemisia is shown to be this great hand- to-hand warrior and amazing General. My problem with this is Artemisia does not display any of this. Artemisia is in charge of, what seems like, a thousand naval ships and when you sail against 50…well with those numbers I would seem like an amazing military genius as well. I won’t spoil why I was frustrated with her combat skills. Green does, however, show the audience how nasty a villain she can be with her body language and evil facial expressions.

Warner Bros. must had faith in little known director Noam Murro (Smart People) to hand over the reins to this hugely popular ‘franchise’. Zach Snyder, director of 300, chose to take a crack at Man of Steel instead of returning to the world of Ancient Greeks. Warner Bros. may have had faith, but evidentially not enough faith because it seems the studio may have had Murro on a short leash. The film feels rushed and is 20 minutes shorter than the original, so due to these points Murro tries to show the audience too many plot points in a short film. The result: a jumbled movie with really bad CGI blood. I do think that the one thing Murro got right was the visual style. This film keeps the same type of color scheme and random slow-motion action scenes to remind us that this is still a 300 film.

I wouldn’t call this film ‘bad’; it just doesn’t live up to its potential. If you enjoyed the first film, Rise of an Empire is worth at least one viewing and ladies, there are plenty of shirtless Greeks for your viewing pleasure…yet again.

Verdict: Watch On Blu-Ray (Once)