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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 2014
MOVIE REVIEW
PAGE 7A
Legendary Pictures
'300' sequel fails to live up to predecessor
"300: Rise of an Empire" isn't so much a comic book movie as it is a live-action comic book. Visually speaking, there is so much slow-motion, combined with stylized visual effects and backdrops, that it looks and feels more like a moving comic than a real film, significantly more so than the original "300." Another factor playing into that is how this sequel lacks much of the narrative and character gravitas from the first, so there's less to care about beyond how cool it looks.
When "300" was released seven years ago, its extraordinary visual style and extreme macho spirit were glorious to behold. Gerard Butler became an iconic movie hero as King Leonidas. Several of its now-famous lines became requisite entries in the popular lexicon and the whole film brought new meaning to the word badass.
Well, it's not new this time around. There's no thrilling lead performance, the odds aren't as insurmountably enthralling and the Greek soldiers are not the epitome of warriors like the Spartans. But, on the plus side, the villain is better, the action is primarily large-scale naval warfare — probably the most kickass sea battles I've ever seen – and the brutal violence seriously quenches your bloodthirst, even when it looks ridiculous.
taking place concurrently and after the battle of the first movie, "300: Rise of an Empire" follows Greek general Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton) as he leads
Greek forces against Xerxes' (Rodrigo Santoro) enormous Persian army, which is under the naval command of Artemisia (Eva Green). The strongest distinguishing trait from "300" is that now we watch the war fought on water, which brings a whole new dynamic to the action.
The first giant set piece details the beginning of the war, shown almost entirely in eye-popping slow motion. Striking slow-mo is so heavily used throughout the film that the images of charging soldiers, swords slashing and enemies being dismembered closely resembles panels of action in a comic book. The buckets of blood flying out from bodies are so over-the-top that they add to the comic aesthetic, cartoonizing the world a little bit. And the light is always glistening.
Xerxes gets a cool backstory transforming him into the imposing god-man, but he fades into the background as Artemisia takes the reigns as the active villain. Eva Green is one of the hottest women alive, and she takes full pleasure in her performance as the heartless baddie bitch. She slices off heads, seduces the hero into a rough and hateful sex scene and causes carnage with spiked armor and a sword in each hand -
super sexy, a little campy and wonderfully committed.
If only the Greek soldier characters were as fun as her. It makes sense for the story that they aren't as hoo-rah exciting as the Spartans, since they're not traditional soldiers, but they just don't have much personality. Stapleton is a serviceable leader, delivering a few convincing battle speeches and ferociously fighting in combat and against Artemisia, but outside of that he's pretty generic. The supporting soldiers fare worse.
But hot damn, the action and visual style are the centerpiece, and "300: Rise of an Empire" sure succeeds on that front. The strategic element of the naval warfare leads to some fantastic shots and set pieces, like ships smashing in half, ships bunching together to create a challenging battlefield and ships catching fire at sea. Just because this is a swords and sandals time period doesn't mean incredible explosions are out of the picture.
The intricate money shot of the movie comes during the climactic final battle, when Themistokles rides a horse from one ship to another, goring lots of Persians along the way, all in an extended sequence that's edited to look like a single shot. Like the rest of the film, it's awesome, silly, full of digital trickery, and so satisfying on a visceral action level that you aren't too bothered there isn't much substance behind it.
★★★
Edited by Julie Etzler
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