300: Rise Of An Empire

 
Based on Frank Miller's latest graphic novel "Xerxes" and told in the breathtaking visual style of the blockbuster 300,  this new chapter of the epic saga takes the action to a fresh battlefield, on the sea, as Greek general Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton) attempts to unite all of Greece by leading the charge that will change the course of the war. This movie pits Themistokles against the massive invading Persian forces led by mortal-turned-god Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), and Artemesia (Eva Green), vengeful commander of the Persian navy.

At the risk of having my "man" card revoked - I never understood how people held 300 in such high regards.  It was a decent watch with crazy slow motion violence and a very unique film style.  But, I never held in the high regards that most guys do.  Maybe I should get my testosterone levels checked or something?  That being said - I felt pretty much the same way about this movie.  And it was a much lesser attempt because they were just trying to expand the 300 movie.  The first half of the movie was a quick paced narrated version of how the people that were fighting the Spartans became who they were and the second half was another battle shortly after the time of 300.  And the narration was annoying as hell.  It was like they had no faith that the story would tell itself so you had a constant voiceover telling you what was happening.  

I wouldn't really recommend people checking this out.  Again - maybe I'm not the best critic because while I kind of enjoyed the first one, I didn't think it was nearly as great as most others did.  That on top of the annoying way that they chose to "tell the story" in this one made it pretty much just there . . . . . . with lots of slow motion blood and violence.