Now For The Rest Of The Story... "300: Rise Of An Empire"

300: Rise of an Empire (2014)

Rated R

Starring Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green, Lena Headey, Rodrigo Santoro

Directed by Noam Murro

The Story:

Admiral Themistocles (Stapleton) is going to lead the forces of Athens against the multitude of Persian warships of the invading Xerxes (Santoro).  Artemesia (Green) is a bloodthirsty Greek vowing revenge for the death of her people and leading Xerxes navy.  Themistocles begs Sparta to send their ships to aid him in keeping Greece free, but the Spartan Queen Gorgo (Headey) has already lost too much.  The 300 Spartans have already fallen, is the rest of Greece doomed to follow?

I don't remember much about 2006's 300.  There was a lot of bloodshed.  There was "This is Sparta!"  And lots of bloodshed. ;)

Cleverly, this movie unfolds in flashbacks and same-time to keep the audience up to speed so that this movie plays as a direct companion to 300 and not strictly a sequel.

Rather clever, and nice of them since it's been almost a decade since the first installment.

Zack Snyder has moved on from the director's chair, but did work on the screenplay so he's still got a hand in the guiding of the movie.

Not that familiar with Stapleton, though he reminds me an awful lot of Luke Goss.  Which, that's cool, because it brings an air of familiarity to him, and he does really well with leading the forces of Greece against Persia.

A skilled Admiral, he is able to hold his own against the bigger Navy, to the point where Artemesia demands a meeting with him to see if he will surrender and join her.

Naturally, in the middle of war, they decide what better way to hold a peace treaty than to have sex?

:: sigh ::

There was already a ton of bloodshed, your R rating was secured.

This seemed amusingly out of place, and done for the sole purpose of locking down the rating.

That, and the dropping of the F-bomb?

Come on people...

That word didn't come into use until literally over thousands of years later.

Take away those two key  moments, this movie would've rated higher.

However, I've got to dock you for sloppiness.

Otherwise, pretty engaging stuff, and the sea battles were phenomenal. 

Final Grade: B-

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: I could watch this one again in the future.  Hmm...now I have to check and see if I own 300.