300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE Movie Review - A Bloody, Studly Good Time

I have not seen Noam Murro’s first film, Smart People, and after seeing his latest - 300: Rise of an Empire - I’m not sure I can yet say I’ve seen a movie of his. 300: Rise of an Empire is to Zack Snyder what the Fab Faux is to The Beatles - a truly remarkable, technically perfect cover. If it comes out some years from now that Snyder stepped in and directed some of the film himself I wouldn’t be too surprised; aesthetically it is often indistinguishable from 300.

But 300: Rise of an Empire is quite distinguishable from the original film (released EIGHT YEARS AGO!), and to the movie’s great credit it does not feel like a retread or a repeat of what we’ve already seen. This sequel keeps the elements that made the original iconic - the painterly look of the film, the much-copied speed ramping, the po-faced seriousness that plods directly into camp - while going off on its own bizarre, perhaps insane, tangent. Operating as a prequel, sidequel and sequel, 300: Rise of an Empire tells the story of how Xerxes got his groove, what the rest of the Greeks were doing while Leonidas and friends were dying and then what impact their sacrifice had on the war between Greece and Persia.

Let me break into my own review here and say that I really like 300. I’m a big fan of style, and while I have profound philosophical issues with that movie, it’s very enjoyable. It’s a bit long, but I like how nutty and odd it is, how gay it is and simply how well made it is. This is one of those times where I want to defend Zack Snyder a bunch because I think he’s a remarkable visual filmmaker who creates images that are exciting and evocative and who I think has an almost preternatural grasp on how to tell a story in pictures. Whether that story is any good is another matter, but Snyder is like Christopher Nolan in that from shot to shot, scene to scene he makes everything work magically. People tend to like Christopher Nolan’s brand of big nonsensical junk better than Snyder’s because Nolan is a British guy and Snyder is a surfer dude, and because Nolan’s schtick is supposedly realism (which isn’t even the case, but he prestiges you) while Snyder is happily flailing about in the ridiculous. And I like the ridiculous, and I like the way that Snyder has an unerring eye for what looks cool and what works in the moment - a moment where you must throw yourself into the sensual awesomeness of an extraordinary image that jumps directly from your cornea into the most exhilaration-prone parts of your lizard brain. So what I’m saying is that you should read the rest of the review through the prism of a guy who has seen the original 300 quite a few times. If you didn’t like that movie, this one isn’t as good.

I wish that defending Snyder’s style was out of place in this review, but Murro really is just doing his best Snyder here. Sometimes it’s sub-Snyder - there are speed ramps that happen just because you expect it in a film with 300 in the title - but other times Murro’s copy is an F For Fake masterwork; during some of the battle scenes I forgot this wasn’t directed by Zack Snyder. It was co-written by him, along with original 300 co-writer Kurt Johnstad, based on a yet-unpublished comic by Frank Miller. I don’t know what Miller’s comic will be like, but 300: Rise of an Empire takes some steps to get away from the original’s dude-heavy aspects and brings in Eva Green to play a character so awesome that making her the villain is a true bummer.

She’s Artemisia, and she commands Xerxes’ naval forces. Where 300 had all the action on the cliffside of the Hot Gates, 300: Rise of an Empire is mostly a naval battle picture, although that doesn’t stop half-naked Greeks from leaping to other ships and engaging in lots of swordplay. Artemisia, it is revealed, is the real brains behind Persia; a decade before the events of 300 she convinced Xerxes, whose father Darius had just been killed by Greek warrior Themistokles, to become a god and then mass his armies for another go at Athens and company. She has put herself in the position of true power, the person who whispers words and plans into god’s ears. Green is fantastic in the role, pacing right at the edge of camp like a hungry tiger.

Green is filled with fire, and she dominates every moment she’s on screen - which is a problem in her scenes opposite Sullivan Stapleton, ostensibly the hero of the picture. He plays Themistokles, now a stateman who blames himself for killing Darius and not the far more dangerous Xerxes in that original battle. He’s heading the ragtag fleet of Greeks (you know, all the city states that the Spartans dismissed as farmers and sculptors and boy lovers in the first film) and at one point he goes to her ship for a face to face that turns into a fuck and then a fist to face. It’s a great scene, and the choreography of the fight/fuck scene is wonderful; the power dynamics that play out speak not just to sexuality but character and larger strategic aspects of the war. There’s a moment where Themistokles tries to take her from behind and then she hits him and leaps atop him that’s got about three layers happening (one of which is that these are two people who look very good nude).

But Stapleton doesn’t have what it takes to stand opposite Green, and neither does anyone else in the film. A lot of her scenes are her standing on a deck getting really mad at the admirals who are failing the hell out of her, and none of these guys are her equal. She demolishes everyone else who comes into frame, and she does it with fierce cruelty and an incendiary sexuality. Green relishes her moments, and the character of Artemisia is a fascinating one, someone driven by a deep desire for revenge. In my original 300 review I noted that the Spartans’ cries for freedom rang hollow when they kept slaves; Artemisia spent her childhood as a sex slave on a Greek ship, putting a face to that lie. It’s a subversive undercutting of the main characters’ motivations and ideology, and it’s part of what made me like the character so much. Where Xerxes was a cartoonish villain in 300, Artemisia is a more complex and understandable antagonist here.

If Stapleton isn’t that great he’s not alone; this time the Greek forces are made up of largely interchangeable meatheads. There’s yet another father/son team, just like in the first film, but good luck telling anybody apart. Snyder’s casting was strong in 300 - it’s likely one of the first places you ever saw Michael Fassbender - and Dominic West, David Wenham (who shows up here again) and especially Gerard Butler made the first film’s cast feel lively. There’s no one at that level here (imagine saying this film suffers for lack of Gerard Butler!), and so the Greeks become a good-natured group of hunks, even more like anonymous Chippendale dancers than in the first film. They’re all serviceable, at least, and they work in the action scenes.

The action scenes are terrific, and the naval stuff offers new avenues for death and slow motion, and lots of cool strategic business. The Greeks chip away at the Persian fleet using deception and trickery, and it’s all a lot of fun. Each engagement is different enough (even with the film having a too-constant sickly grey palette) that it never feels repetitive, and the ante keeps getting upped until when Themistokles is riding a horse from burning ship to burning ship it’s just the next natural progression. The final battle is a blast, and there are some more (well, one more) female characters thrown into the mix to cut off heads and slice off limbs. The movie ends on a triumphant note not unlike 300, with the promise of the battle against the Persians continuing in 300 3: Still 300 After All These Years.

I really enjoyed 300: Rise of an Empire. It’s not as good as 300 - it doesn’t have the strong cast and the fact that it’s aping 300 so hard makes it impossible for the film to be truly unique - but it’s a worthy prequel/sidequel/sequel. It plays nicely in the same nutty world as the original (although I wish it got nuttier. There are sea monsters, but they’re in a dream) and it expands the story and the setting in a way that makes me hopeful for another sequel (of course part of what makes this sequel so palatable is the long time between films; if there’s a 300 3 in two years it may be too soon). If you liked 300 as I did, 300: Rise of an Empire is going to be a total blast for you. If you’re not a fan of 300… well, I’m sure you have something else to do this weekend.