THIS…IS…DECENT!!!

It’s actually interesting how much of a pop culture impact 300 has had; it resurrected swords-and-sandals films as major movies, made Gerard Butler a household name and it’s ubiquitous use of slo-mo has been imitated and parodied to no end. Seven years later, a sequel, 300: Rise of An Empire, arrives to take advantage of it’s predecessors popularity to deliver tale on the high seas.

There are many warriors in these ancient times, but one whose bravery is unmatched is Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton). He is, after all, famous for his many slayings in battle and in leading his army to certain victory over Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his fierce general Artemisia (Eva Green). But as the blood spilled begins to get immense on both sides of this war, Themistokles realizes that he’ll have to do something truly revolutionary if there is to be any hope of winning this war.

The original director of 300, Zack Snyder, is too busy off ruining DC superheroes to continue the escapades of shirtless dudes fighting each other, so it’s up to the bizarre choice of Noam Murro (whose last work was the independent 2008 film Smart People) to continue this series. He actually does OK for himself all things considered, though his work with the characters in the film is so poor that I couldn’t remember most of the names the moment I left the theatre. But of course, it’s in the action sequences where the film wants to excel, and while it gets more than a bit repetitive after a while, he does have some inventive ways to get all the bloody carnage executed, the best being a single shot take that starts off with a man being set on fire that leads to awesome destruction.

Unfortunately, the whole emphasis on over the top action leads to every other department in the film to be underdeveloped. Weirdly, this extends to the visual effects, with all of the CGI blood in the movie looking more fit for a PlayStation 2 game than a 2014 blockbuster. The green screen backgrounds suffer a similar fate, with a scene set in a Spartan village in particular looking horrendously fake. Such shortcomings could be forgiven if the characters were engaging enough, but they really aren’t. None of them are all that engaging, despite a good chunk of the running time being spent on setting up Xerxes backstory (though that origin tale at least contains some striking imagery)

Yet, even with all these flaws to discuss, 300: Rise of An Empire is a serviceable, and occasionally exciting, adventure. Those action sequences are just gripping enough to not have those shortcomings be overly disruptive, and I’m sure it’ll be a favorite among action film junkies. For me, it’ll do as a not too memorable time waster that has just enough tremendous 3D spectacle to save itself.