300: Rise of an Empire-Film Review

300: Rise of an Empire

Whilst many of Frank Miller’s comic book adaptions translate well into cinematic releases, the academy award winning Dark Knight and the neo-noir thriller Sin City to name a couple, 300: Rise of an Empire is an example of when something is best left alone. Whilst the original graphic novel 300 was published the follow up Xeres, which serves as the prequel to 300 is based upon, never was published. After watching 300: Rise of an Empire I am not so sure that this was a bad thing.

Xeres arise from what one can only assume is a vat of hair removal cream.

Before mentioning anything about the content of the film there is one confusion that needs to addressed. Is the film a sequel, a prequel or does it run in parallel with the events of Rise of an Empire? The answer is all three and the execution is poor. The narrative is certainly not confusing, it is overwhelmingly basic in fact; a Greek war hero repels the Persian forces repeatedly after seeking aid from the Spartans who, after the death of King Leonidas, comply. It is the fact the film seemingly needs to write and demonstrate the origin of almost every character that makes the film a chore to watch. We, the audience, are treated to fifteen minutes of Xeres whining about his father and removing every hair from his body before murdering all of his most trusted advisors… why I am not sure. If it is not Xeres’ narrative, which appears and disappears as quickly as the film becomes boring, then it is the turn of the Greeks to discuss Eva Green’s woefully dull Artemisia. Artemisia, a Greek whose entire family was raped and killed by the Greeks, before she herself was presumably raped and the left for dead, is determined to wipe the Greeks out. An understandable motive, no question. However, the protagonist Themistocles is Greek and we spend the narrative encouraged to support the Greeks. Wait, are we supporting rapists and murders? And the Persians rescued her, healed her and raised her? Are they really that bad? Wait why do we want to Greeks to win? Even as I read and re-read the plot summary I cannot find any justification for the Greek’s actions. Like another film I watched this week, The Grand Budapest Hotel, the films had no qualms in altering history. It seems more like this was done, in the case of 300, to look cool. I.E. wouldn’t it be cool Themistocles killed King Darius I? I know they never actually met but Artemisia could pull the arrow that kills him out of his chest in front of Xeres and it could be metaphorical for her manipulation and shit? At least that’s what I imagine the meetings in pre-production of the film were like.

Not really sure what this look is trying to convey...

Anyway, the exchanges between psychotic necrophilia-enthusiast Artemisia and the wonderfully wooden Themistocles is laughable. “You fight like you fuck” says Artemisia as she attacks Themistocles and references the awkward sexual encounter between the pair. He does indeed “fight like he fucks”; with strange levels of aggression in front of Persians. But that brings me on to another point. The film played out like a video game. Themistocles the hero hacks through wave upon wave of faceless Persians before facing the slightly tougher “Boss”. It even felt like it came with a tutorial; charging down the enemy in slow motion and firing the arrow that slays the initial antagonist. It did feel like a quick time event in a game. To be honest, the slow motion was used so often that it lost all effect. Was it effective for conveying drama? No. Was it effective in achieving an emotional effect? No. Did it look cool? For about five minutes yes. After that it became thoroughly tiresome.

Much like its predecessor, the film offers up a myriad of screaming men brandishing spears and screaming in slow motion as they cut their way through the ineffective Persian army. It also treads dangerously close to, like the first instalment, being racist. Persia, or Iran, utilise suicide bombers… Hmmm. However, the film simply put looks fantastic. It really does. A highly stylised mise en scene that looks as if it has been perfectly lifted from the pages of a graphic novel, with low contrast in light and some excellent costumes (when characters can be bothered to wear them) certainly prevent this film from slipping into disaster territory. Despite this fact, 300: Rise of an Empire should be avoided by all but the most hard-core of fans or those with morbid curiosity.