Review: 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE

300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE  (ACTION/FANTASY)
2 out of 4 stars
Directed by Noam Murro
Starring: Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green, Lena Headey, Hans Matheson, Callan Mulvey, David Wenham, Rodrigo Santoro, Jack O'Connell, Andrew Tiernan, Yigal Naor, Andrew Pleavin, Ben Turner, Ashraf Barhom, Christopher Sciueref
Rated R for strong sustained sequences of stylized bloody violence throughout, a sex scene, nudity and some language.
Verdict:  300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE is bound to slake the bloodlust of even the most ravenous fanboys/fangirls and may even get some history lessons (albeit heavily corrupted) to stick with even the less intellectually ambitious audiences, but it's unlikely to impress those not already in adoration of the original.  The story is less streamlined, without the movie quotes manufactured for easy remembering, but problematic ideologies are still laid on thick.  On the other hand, Eva Green, as a sexy and psychotic harridan is a magnetic onscreen presence that makes the relatively dull interpretation of history a lot more interesting.
YOU MAY ENJOY 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE IF YOU LIKED:
300 (2006)
TROY (2004)
CLASH OF THE TITANS (2010)
CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982/2011)
IMMORTALS (2011)

At the risk of negating my input toward anyone reading this, I should be forthcoming in that I'm not exactly a big fan of the original 300.  Oh sure, I enjoyed it the first couple times, but it quickly loses its savor with subsequent viewings.  The speed-ramps become predictable and nauseating, the jingoistic ideologies grating and the whole thing has an overtly manufactured feel that turns bland very fast.  It feels like a "cookie-cutter" epic, but without the a bunch of similar movies to make up the other cookies.
It's hard to say whether its follow-up, 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE, is an improvement, but I do think fans of the original will be pleased nonetheless.  The bloodshed is totally unmitigated, the history is still hugely distorted and the imagery, while just a tad toned down, is still comic book-stylized. 
"Follow-up" is the appropriate terminology as well, because it isn't exactly a sequel.  The first act is a prequel, covering events prior to 300, the second act occurs simultaneously to the Battle of Thermopylae and the climactic third act shows what happened after.  Rather than the Hot Gates however, the focal point of RISE OF AN EMPIRE is Athens, or more specifically on the seas off the coast of Euboea, where the Battle of Artemisium takes place.
It starts 10 years before at the Battle of Marathon, where Athenian Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton) defeats the Persian Empire in the first Persian Invasion and looses the arrow that slays King Darius, father of Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro).  At the urging of the ruthless admiral of the Persian navy, Artemisia (Eva Green), Xerxes embarks on the quest that makes him the "God-King", and returns to wage war on Greece with the largest invasion force the world has ever seen.  Themistokles, whose valor at the Battle of Marathon has propelled him into a respected political position and made him admiral of the Athenian navy, persuades Athens to defy the Persian Empire and leads the fleet to defend Athens at sea against the massive Persian navy under the command of Artemisia.
I didn't see it in 3D, but it's plenty obvious how much blood is deliberately splattered out in stereoscopic dimensions, and its in the gallons, and that's just what coming "out" of the screen, with so much more everywhere else.  I'm not sure why, but in the first two-thirds of the movie, the blood seems to have an annoyingly "goopy" consistency, but it gets a lot better in the final battle.  I guess that's nitpicking, but it bugged me.

Sullivan Stapleton as Themistokles of Athens in 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE.

Worse is the militaristic, jingoistic ideology of the film, carried over from the original, where the "good" guys are beefy he-men who kill without mercy in the name of territorial patriotism and some sense of "freedom", and the "bad" guys are all-accepting who bring the so-called "freaks" and "undesirables" of society into their fold.  There's certainly no sufficient evidence that the Greeks are any more "free" than the Persians, beyond throwaway lines about democracy and liberty.  There's also a lot of problematic exaggerated Middle Eastern stereotypes with Greeks easily cutting down Persians clad in all manner of historically inaccurate Bedouin-style robes and keffiyehs, and even a "suicide bomber" scene that all smacks of race-baiting.  That said, all these issues were present in the original 300, and on a more brazen level; at least this time around there seems to be a very slight effort to ease up on the more sadistic and exaggerated jingoism and anti-Arab sentiments, no doubt helped by a lesser focus on the comic book-styled Sparta.
In spite of my substantial complaints, it isn't actually a "bad" film; it's okay.  Eva Green, as a gorgeous harridan with a hugely justified grudge against her Greek homeland, is the most fun, taking the lead in humorously aggressive sexual encounter with her bland co-star Stapleton and beheading a man with a knife before planting a kiss on the twitching severed head's lips.  In a film of mostly unremarkable performers, she chews the scenery in a league above the movie itself.
Ever since the early 2000s, the notion of R-rated blockbusters has fallen out of fashion to give way to the PG-13 superhero/sci-fi event films, so it's something of a novelty to see a major investment in not just an R-rated period action film, but a very hard-R-rated one.  There's even a sex scene, and a real wild one at that, while most of the recent major studio films, especially those aimed at a "fanboy" audience, are distinctly sexless.  Some critics speculate that it's because fanboys are averse to sex, but it's obvious that they're just getting their sex kicks from easily accessible, more explicit and out-of-context pornography, and the studios are just as happy to skimp on the sex if they can bring in families too.  There's no question about RISE OF AN EMPIRE's lack of interest in family audiences though.  The whole point is to have copious amounts of blood gush without consequence and if there's time, exposed buxom feminine orbs and rippling male torsos.

Eva Green as Artemisia I of Caria in 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE.