300: Rise of an Empire (2014)

I wanted to but couldn't!

A different way of telling a story

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

I am not a particular huge fan of the original 300, but I do like it for what it is. I'm afraid this is not up to par quality wise.I thought this was to be a sequel, but I was wrong, it's more in parallel of the original, with a bit of prequel and sequel around.I did appreciate seeing some of the original cast back, it was definitely nice, even though the movie is not about them (too bad!).This movie follows the previous one with its central characters, and unfortunately the comparison isn't good for it, and this is exactly my biggest issue.* Leonidas is replaced by Themistokles:I have no problem with Stapleton, he seems a great actor, but unfortunately his character is far less interesting. He's pretty much a good guy that cares a lot for everyone with little humor, I found it somewhat boring to watch compared to our previous lead. I understand that it represents the difference between the Athenians and the Spartans, but it doesn't really work out for me, maybe it would have with a better co-lead.* Xerxes is replaced by Artemisia:Now this really did not work. Xerxes was awesome (in limited quantity of course) whereas Artemisia not quite. There was something about her makeup that made me wonder if she was on meth or a goth or something else that did not belong... Forgetting that, her build is not of a warrior, there is no way for her to wield a sword and a shield all day like this. Why are all the guys huge but her, the best warrior of Persia, so tiny? and yet she's the only one wielding not one sword, but 2! (yes yes I understand skills... still I'd expect more a build like Ferris Hellig, especially for a 300 main character!). Some of her scenes were fine, even if not super interesting, but I felt some of her last speeches lacked feelings).* Dillos was replaced by Aeskylos:It's not that Dillos is such an awesome character in 300, but he's good enough in most of his scenes and great in his last ones. I never felt anything good about Aeskylos, this time it's probably both the character and the actor. It's like they needed Themistokles to have some discussions so they sort of forced this guy in, but he serves no real purpose.* The father and son are replaced by... another father and son! The evolution of their relationship is interestingly opposite, as again one would expect between Spartans and Athenians and that was good, but the characters are not that interesting and the boy that needs to prove his worth to his father is not that fun that we needed it. The dad is fine, I think he should have taken over Aeskylos's role and have more screen time.* The multiple Persian armies are replaced by the Persian Navy: That too was fairly boring in comparison. In the first one you never really know what will be coming next, but here it's always the same... Well it is less insulting to Persians though since it has no demons/monsters this time :)The main characters, which is what the movie is really about, are unfortunately fairly boring. The sex scene has no purpose but itself... I could understand one of the 2 characters taking part in it, but definitely not the other A few things seem to contradict between the 2 movies as well, but nothing too major. The first battle had so much blood, they even splashed it on the camera, it was annoying.All in all, nothing to remember.

How would you feel if you found out that somebody lied to you? Would you respect a person who tells serious lies about an important thing?We all know about Alexander's invasion and conquest of Persia but have you ever heard of Xerxes' invasion and conquest of Hellas?Leonidas with many more people than just 300 tried in vain to stop the Persian army and got crushed. But why so much respect for Leonidas? Because he fought intrepidly. What would he have gotten if it happened in the modern era? He would probably have received an army commendation or something - posthumously. Get the point? Okay, he's been exaggerated!The people of Athens ran for their lives days before the Persian army reached Hellas borders. Oh, and it was the Persians who grew beards as seen on all the stone carvings remaining from ancient times not the Greeks. In the movie the Persians look like aliens, orcs, zombies and beasts!Some parts of history are musts to be read. The Greko-Persian wars is an important chapter in the history of mankind.I am so concerned about how our media are run by such illiterate thugs who show no respect to accuracy when accounting for a real event. I mean how can we trust anyone from now on?

Honestly this was entertaining to watch and had a well mounted story, yeah it wasn't historically correct, whatever, for that matter go see a documentary, honestly i found it amusing and good not deserving of the 3/10 people are giving it, 300 was a super movie and people are putting this one in a bad spot because of the shadow of the original and that's not fair, this isn't Lalaland or some utter garbage movie like that.

I finally got around to watching this movie and WTF were they thinking when they created this one? It fails in every way to live up to the original film. I was expecting something completely different than this half mess. I like about one-half of this film and the other half I didn't.The story is a far cry from the first movie - it sucks, badly sucks. I really expected this follow-up to sorta pick up where the first film left off and not a half messed up prequel.What I did like was the battles and costuming... and that's about it. Most of the actors are okay but could not hold a candle to the first film. My beef with it is the story stinks for the most part.I'm rating it a 5 out of 10 because I half way liked it, and half way didn't. I would recommend the first movie but not this one.5/10