300: Rise of an Empire

300: Rise of an Empire

Before watching “300”, released in 2006, I did not refresh my knowledge in Ancient Greek history, neither did I do it before going to see the latter sequel called “300: Rise of an Empire”. To be clear, my reason is that I am not being dismissive of such researches as they are definitely beyond my pay grade, but the fact remains that job number one was not about realism and/or actual accuracy for the filmmakers.

This happened despite my being unprepared because “Rise of an Empire” is a companion piece rather than a sequel to “300” (since it shows events that occur at the same time with those depicted in “300”). The former begins with an action montage and maybe twenty minutes exposition voice-over. Or so it seems. However, this does not mean that the movie had no historical narrative.

There’s a single Greek, who is an Athenian and believes in what he calls ‘experiment’ which is democracy; so much so that he wants Spartans to back him up against fey Persians led by possibly homosexual golden (literally!) boy Xerxes coming to destroy his model city. They are coming by ship and on board their navy is their sister Artemisia played by Eva Green giving exquisitely sexual performance similar to Diamanda Galas without singing. This naval commander unlike any other she ever came across has become curious about this Athenian named Themistocles (played by Sullivan Stapleton).

The first film adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel “300” was relentlessly male driven in a way that was both relentlessly homoerotic and blithely homophobic; however, inclusion of Green’s character into combat (historically inaccurate) alters the sexual dynamic hilariously yet mind blowing. I detested Zack Snyder directed “300” so much imagine its flagrant war mongering sentiments or its overt homophobia you’d think it was shot through dog feces smeared lenses.

Noam Munro (who also directed “Smart People”, which clearly established him as a 3D action movie directo no it did not) directs “Rise of an Empire.” It is much more enjoyable because I cannot take it even in a slightest way serious. Green’s persona here goes beyond ruthless and crosses the border between Medea and the cheesiest soap opera ever made, and that’s where it becomes delightful.

The rest of the film’s excessiveness is quite deliberate too. Each time a sword cuts through a battling warrior, the screen gets filled with blood squirting out like that from a lake; you may even start praying for one of the character’s to get a paper cut. Moreover, the color scheme here is wider than in Snyder’s original, besides dun there is also plenty of blue and dark grey along with a lot of crimson.

Is there intelligent dialogue or anything else emotionally stirring? In my opinion, none. But when it comes to pure bloody spectacle, “300: Rise of an Empire” makes great use of mere sordid spectacle. Only do not attempt taking history lessons from this movie.

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