300: Rise of an Empire

Or 300: On Water. This prequel/sequel takes the scenario of the first film and puts in on the sea in a slightly boring, albeit actual, naval battle. Despite the rampant action set pieces that are paraded around, this film could not capture the magical essence of the original film and I feel as though part of this stems from the fact that so much effort was put into creating elaborate 3D visual effects.

The film takes place alongside the events of the original 300 film. So while Leonidas and his 300 Spartans are fighting the Persians at the battle of Thermopylae, Athenian statesman and war hero Themistocles (Sullivan Stapleton) engages the Persian fleet, commanded by Artemisia (Eva Green), in a series of naval battles with a pitiful fleet of ships.

I think the main problem with the film is that it is trying too hard to recreate the underdog feeling of the original and falling short, as well as recounting a lesser known battle. I would have rather seen an adaption of Xenophon's Anabasis, but alas that exciting epic came much later in the Persian Wars and has already been perfectly adapted as The Warriors (1979).

It also seems to me that ancient Greece was populated by mostly Australian and British people, for there is not a single American (or Greek, for that matter) actor in sight. Sullivan Stapleton (Animal Kingdom) does a passable job as Themistocles, but somehow I felt he was channeling either Mel Gibson or Russell Crowe in his rallying speeches. A lot of the original cast have returned, with Lena Headey (Game of Thrones) getting the most screen time of them.

The only noteworthy, although flawed, performance comes from Eva Green (Casino Royale). She plays a female character that is as hard and tough as the men in the film and I was happy that she was treated with the same brutality as those men. I was unhappy, however, with the one massively out of context sex scene in which she dons a pair of fake breasts that are way too large for her slender frame (anyone who's seen her debut role in The Dreamers (2003) will spot this immediately).

Verdict: A seemingly passable movie on the surface, but once you scratch a little deeper you can see that even Green's performance can't save this sinking ship.