300: Rise of an Empire

300: Rise of an Empire is a brisk romp through the history books but without paying too much attention to actual history. This version is filtered through the comic book imagination of Frank Miller and the bloody cinematic CGI heavy vision of Zack Snyder, so there’s plenty of deviations from the script; we’re enjoying a Classical Studies lecture but via the vivid day-dream of a horn-dog student, and that’s probably one way of spicing things up for a modern audience who at least turned up to gawk at some good old fashioned sex and violence; on a $100 million budget, the film-makers trebled their money at the worldwide box-office.

The events depicted in Noam Munro’s film wrap around the legendary battle seen in the first film; complete with a computer-generated Gerry Butler, the Spartans are seen heading off the Hot Gates 20 minutes in, and news of their heroic sacrifice is received around the hour mark. The focus is therefore wider, and begins with the birth of Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro). Popping out of the pool at 12 feet tall, the mortal turned god is mainly a peripheral figure as the Greeks, led by Themistocles (Sullivan Stapleton) ramp up for a sea-battle with the Persians.  The Persian forces are under the control of Artemisia (Eva Green), whose backstory is fully explained through a graphic scene in which she watches her family murdered. Trained as a warrior, she’s a worthy adversary for Themistocles in her plenipotentiary role, and they even get it on romantically, although their big lovemaking scene is anything but gentle.

With Snyder co-writing and producing, 300: Rise of an Empire is very much more of the same in terms of bare-chested speeches by men and women, and heavy bouts of woolly narration, but the epic sea battles are freshly presented, and the spectacle is huge throughout. Green and Stapleton both fill out their roles with venom, even managing to upstage genre specialist Lena Headey, and as gouts of gore spray over decks, extras and the camera lens, the early promise of a ‘tide of blood’ is thoroughly delivered on, including a choice decapitation.

300: Rise of an Empire is a rattling good watch for those who enjoyed the first film, and does work as a stand-alone in its own right. With plenty of plot-lines left hanging, it felt like there was plenty of scope for the franchise to continue after this solid, impressively handled entry, but as yet, nothing has emerged. Snyder had visions of a series of splattery historical epics ranging from Alexander the Great to the American Revolutionary War, but none have come to fruition; a separate film just about Eva Green’s fearsome kick-ass Artemisia would be ideal as a time-passer for now.