British Actress Blog

300: Rise of an Empire (2014)

Score: "C"

Director: Noam Murro

Stars: Lena Headey, Eva Green, Sullivan Stapleton, Rodrigo Santoro

Synopsis: After the battle of Thermopylae, Themistocles launches a counter attack to stop the Invading force that threatens Greece.

Review: Themistocles ( Sullivan Stapleton ) rallies the Greek forces to counter attack Xerxes’s (Rodrigo Santoro ) invading forces. Hell bent on defending Xerxes’s forces, Artemisia ( Eva Green ) seeks out to destroy the Greeks before Xerxes loses everything.

Lena Headey reprises her role well as the Spartan Queen Gorgo very well. She is like the “nice” Cersei from Game of Thrones. There does not seem to be anything new added to her character that was not in the first film, other than her wielding a sword, and ready to defend her country.

Eva Green plays a conniving leader very well. This role is much like her excellent role as Morgan in the STARZ TV series Camelot. She is the right person for the job, but at the time of this film, she was being type caste as this kind of character. Still, Eve Green is getting the recognition she deserves for her amazing talents.

The film focuses on the tactics of battle. This movie does this a little too well. The History Channel documentaries have told this story much better. This film does not have much to offer as far as a movie is concerned, which is why we get so much back story filler.

The cinematography is just OK. The lighting is too dark and the color is way too washed out. 300 (2006) was brighter and easier to look at without straining your eyes. The backgrounds look flat like there is a picture of ancient Greece in the back ground rather than a practical set. Obviously the first films backgrounds where created with CGI as well, but the higher resolution of this film seems to bring out the flaws in the post effect more than the first film. Somehow the graphics are worse in this movie than the first movie. The wardrobe, set dressing, and props are average. As most of us can guess, this film is horrifically inaccurate, even less so than the first movie. There is a certain level of desperation that the first film had, that you don’t feel in this movie. I think that it may be because the film takes place, mostly on the sea where there is plenty of maneuverability, so there is a sense of freedom. This movie is not worth watching in my opinion. The only real reason to see this film is if you’re a fan of Eva Green and Lena Heady. This movie is passable at best.

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More Films.

Cinderella (2015)

The King’s Speech (2010)

Suffragette (2015)

The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet (2013)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)

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