300: Rise Of An Empire (2014) – Review

Before I start this review, please, please, please, go see the first Zack Snyder/Frank Miller film, 300 from 2007. Even though 300: Rise of an Empire has background story about the first film, I still think it’s necessary to see in order to get the full effect. And besides, the first one kicked total ass. Anyways, for those of you who did go see 300: Rise of an Empire on the opening weekend, congrats. Was it everything you thought it would be? Did you want more? I can admit, I wanted more, at least at the end.

For the record, 300: Rise of an Empire dominated the box office opening weekend, making an estimated $45 million state side, and over $85 million in other countries, totally over $133 million worldwide. Even better is that it made nearly $11 million on Thursday night at the IMAX/3D cinemas.

A lot of critics are saying that 300: Rise of an Empire was bad, wasn’t as good as the first, lacked story, had too much sex… blah, blah, blah. Apparently, people forgot that sex and violence sells. And why not add nearly five minutes of basically a porn scene with Eva Green (Artemisia) and Sullivan Stapleton (Themistokles) to put the cherry on top. I was not complaining, that’s for sure.

The 3-D graphics were great, although I will say that the CGI was a little over used in this one. But that was the style of the original 300, so might as well stick to it. The choreography, special effects, and action definitely made this one a keeper, meaning I’m buying it on DVD when it becomes available.

Basically, the movie takes place at the same time that 300 took place. Although it skips a little bit from after the 300 battle, to before, to during, and then after again. The Athenian army was fighting the Persians via sea while the 300 Spartans were fighting on land. The Athenians were basically hoping that with the loss of the 300 Spartans that it would unite all of Greece and help with the war against the Persians. After countless battles obviously there has to be an epic ending, and you may just have to go watch it to find out. I’ll just say that it sucked to be the Persians that day.

The Verdict:

If you like action, violence, and sex, and especially if you like the first installment, you should go see 300: Rise of an Empire. Whether or not the other critics are right and this movie is thin on story, so what, not all movies need that to be enjoyable. An audience needs to remember what movie they're seeing.