Coming some seven years after its predecessor, 300: Rise of an Empire transports audiences back to the Persian Invasion of Greece. The story follows a series of battles at sea that occurred during the events of the original film. But while it is certainly an eye-popping exercise with elaborate visuals, this dramatically limp follow up ends up a bit wet and soggy.
For those unfamiliar with the first film, there’s a lengthy opening narrative that explains the conflict and numerous characters involved. In fact, it runs nearly ten minutes. To make a long story short, one of the primary persons featured is Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), the son of a Persian leader killed in battle. Desperate to take revenge and conquer Greece, Xerxes takes a dip in a magical black wading pool and exits an evil God with gold chains. Leading the sea-bound Persian forces and second in command is Artemisia (Eva Green), a cruel and determined strategist with a personal vendetta against her enemy. The only man who can stop the two is heroic Athenian general Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton) and a small crew of locals ready to fight for their freedom.
From this point forwards, it’s a series of battle scenes with crashing boats and soldiers slicing limbs off of one another on ship decks. Some of the ship maneuvers and strategies early on are interesting, as the overwhelmed Greeks find creative ways to disrupt the plans of their foes. The watery visuals are exaggerated and there are a couple of impressive and lengthy shots that boast elaborate fight choreography.
However, there’s a bare minimum of character development devoted to the heroes and only a brief scene or two introducing the others fighting for Themistokles. Since these people are barely established, there isn’t much of a reason to become invested in their personal struggles. The film also has a propensity for long, grandly delivered monologues and speeches about finding glory in the inevitability of death. It could have used a few more conversations that don’t exist just to deliver exposition… loudly.
And as striking as the camera set ups are, there are only so many slow-motion takes and shots of digital blood splashing against the lens before it becomes tedious. Every break from the water conflicts result in a back-lit scene with fragments of dust and dirt floating in the air. It’s a nice effect the first time it’s utilized, but it is also used with far too much repetition. Another issue not helping matters is the close of the film, which promises yet another sequel. No doubt, the third chapter will feature extra limbs being chopped off of nameless characters and even more copious amounts of digitized blood spurting across the screen than ever seen before.
Despite the best efforts of some of the cast (Green is at least entertainingly grandiose), the filmmakers seem far more interested in presenting a series of “cool looking” action poses than drawing viewers in with a strong story. While one can see how it all might be appealing to young men simply craving a series of action scenes, older viewers will likely find 300: Rise of an Empire water-logged.