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Athens entrusts its fleet to its greatest warrior, Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton), who years earlier killed Xerxes' father, King Darius I (Yigal Naor). Unfortunately, Rise of an Empire lacks some of the poetry, power, pacing and visual prowess of the original, reveling in blunt force trauma that occasionally borders on self-parody.Īs King Leonidas (a briefly glimpsed but frustratingly absent Gerard Butler) defies the leaders of Sparta and wages war with invading God-king Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), the politicians of Athens choose a different course of action, sending a large fleet of ships to engage the still-overwhelming forces of the Persian navy. But is it a better film than its predecessor? Adrenaline junkies will surely shout "tonight we dine in HELL!" And if viewed sheerly as mindless entertainment - call it Big Dumb Hyper-stylized Historical Fun - they might be right. It even distances itself from 300, leaving the shores of Greece to focus on the crucial naval battles raging at sea.
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As a companion piece, it employs a rarely used sequel-structure, weaving the new story of Athenian hero Themistocles into the fabric of the now-familiar tale of Spartan king Leonidas' fateful stand at Thermopylae. Director Noam Murro and producer/co-writer Zack Snyder's 300: Rise of an Empire dutifully plays the role of big-budget sequel to Snyder's 2007 surprise box office hit, dishing out a gory, visceral assault on the senses that ups the franchise ante in every conceivable way. Bigger, noisier, bloodier, more brutal and more aggressive, absolutely.