300: Rise of an Empire - Noodles Review

6.5 out of 10 Noodles

   I didn't have the highest of expectations for this film. I love 300 but I don't really think a sequel is necessary for it. You didn't really even feel like there was room for a sequel. Also this sequel isn't even directed by Zack Snyder, so how could it capture the greatness of the first. Fortunately, I found out that this is based on another Frank Miller comic, entitled Xerxes, so that made me feel a little bit safer with this. But I still wasn't sold. But I'm glad to have been wrong. I cannot deny that this movie was freaking awesome. The first 300 was revolutionary in its action, in that it used a new style in which slow motion and fast motion intertwine seamlessly and in a cool way. Many many many movies tried to emulate that in the following years but not could truly capture that glory (Immortals came close though with the gods vs titans battle). Even recently, Legend of Hercules tried it and just seemed sloppy and unoriginal. But it's nice to see that action style back where it belongs: in a 300 movie. It works great. One gripe is that there's way too much unnecessary blood, that all looks really fake. Sure, 300 had a lot of blood spurting out, but Rise of an Empire will drop a bucket of blood if a guy just stubs his toe. It's too much sometimes. However, the battles were still awesome and epic. This movie has a very different tone from the first one though. The colour palette, even, was noticeably different. In 300, it was all sandy and yellow, but here it's dark blue; which is probably because a lot of this movie is naval combat. Also, we're not dealing with Spartans here. Spartans were the badasses who thought dying in battle was glorious. But in this film, we've got the rest of the Greeks, mainly Athenians, who just wanna survive and see their friends survive as well. You could even tell that from the fighting styles; you could tell they didn't wanna fight but felt momentum when they were doing good. I like that, because it gives us more relatable characters.
    Themistokles is our main character here. The timeline of this film doesn't really warrant it being called a sequel, because in the beginning it takes place before the first movie; wherein Themistokles battles the Persians for the first time, and we see Xerxes's rise to power as well. Later, it takes place at the same time as 300, like you may even hear "oh the Spartans just had a battle over at Thermopylae." And then, the last third or half of the movie takes place after 300; "oh the Spartans have all died." But Themistokles has so much ambition throughout this whole film, that's what made you wanna get behind him. He realizes that they're not like the Spartans, who can just kill 100 guys each. He has to come up with battle strategies to try to trick the Persians. He's also a badass, he will just sometimes go all Rambo, and it's pretty cool. The villain, Artemisia played by Eva Green, she was great too. She was a great villain, she was ruthless, sexy, and badass. However, none of the other characters really felt that important, or you couldn't really get invested in anyone else. You could argue Xerxes, but he's not in the movie all that much either. The other Greek captains and such didn't feel important, nor did anyone with a name, because those are the only names I remember. There's a couple little easter eggs, like it'll show a character from 300 and how they're tied to this movie too; those are fun but not always needed. The last minute of this movie, though, I just didn't like how it ended; you might understand why if you see it.
    Like I said earlier, the fight scenes were awesome and epic, but sometimes the green screen didn't work well; for example, you could sometimes see the green haze next to Themistokles's beard. C'mon this is a $100 million movie, we shouldn't see cheap green screens. Also, the blood looked really fake but I guess that's something we should suspend belief with. All in all, I still like the first movie a lot better, but 300: Rise of an Empire was really awesome and was still an very enjoyable flick, so I'm giving it 6.5 out of 10 Noodles. What I'd really like to see is a superedit of 300 and Rise of an Empire, like in chronological order with the events of 300 plopped right in the middle to make a long 3.5 hour Greek war epic. That would be awesome.

So what's your favourite sword-sandal movie. I already mentioned that I love the first 300, but my favourite in that category would have to be Gladiator with Russell Crowe, the perfect tale of vengeance, as well as a masterfully directed cinematic experience with awesome action.