Movie review - 300: Rise of an Empire

300 Rise of an EmpireA ActionDir Noam MurroCast Sullivan Stapleton Eva Green Lena HeadeyFirst things first 300 Rise of an Empire has a very interesting sex scene In fact itrsquos one of the most entertaining and funny sex scenes Irsquove ever seen A guy who grew up in the rsquo80s will remember the scene from 9 frac12 Weeks and a contemporary guy will tell his friends about the scene in this movie It features Eva Green a battle board and a whole lot of hilarious wrestlingA still from 300 Rise of an EmpireDonrsquot judge me for starting this review with a description of the sex scene because the movie is aimed at people like me who want to watch some blood gore and sexy time on the big screen Zack Snyderrsquos 300 was not exactly a narrative masterpiece mdash it was a ridiculously goodlooking film with generous amounts of eyepopping visuals and TampA It had imagery never seen before in cinemas mdash it was fresh and bold and pretty darn entertaining 300 Rise of an Empire is as visually arresting and well packaged as its predecessor but herein lies the problem ndash it has stuff wersquove seen many times before because it has arrived seven years after the first filmThe new film is a sequel and a prequel jumping forward and backwards in time sifting through the events of the first film Itrsquos pretty much a narrative and editing mess with the filmmakers having no idea of what or whom to focus onAt one point wersquore led to believe that this is going to be Xerxesrsquo Santoro film and then wersquore told to follow Artemisiarsquos Green story instead Not enough Herersquos Themistocles Stapleton as the Greek army hero and Queen Gorgo Headey who tries to jut in the party and become the lsquomainrsquo characterI still am not sure who the protagonist and the antagonist were although just like in the previous movie the Greeks are the good guys in the end The first movie was based on a graphic novel so it followed its storyline but there is no reason why the filmmakers would choose to side with the Greeks in this film Greece and Persia have a rich and bloody history and the film doesnrsquot remain historically accurate nor does it make any decent argument on why the Persians were the baddies Itrsquos like the Russians always being the bad guys in American video gamesIs the action any good Hell yes The pitch sea battles are stunning as is the thumping music that accompanies them That way the film is never boring Like video game levels the Persians keep sending different ships with different bosses and the Greeks devise ways to counter them Itrsquos the exact same structure of the first film and therersquos even an Ocean version of the Hot Gates Doesnrsquot matter because there is enough swordsmashing cutting slicing punching and decapitating to keep you interestedThe sequences are certainly not as iconic as the action in 300 barring one where in a huge uncut take Themistocles horserides across three ships and battles ArtemisiaThe problem arises in the scenes in between the action mayhem where wersquore forced to look at people who are even blander than in the previous movie Thatrsquos when you want to tell director Noam Murro lsquoDude just give us the action not the lame and boring attempts at character developmentrsquo