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Created Mar 13, 2014 12:25AM PST • Edited Apr 17, 2014 01:36PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Very Good 3.5

   300: Rise of an Empire is Greek history through a fantasy lens darkly, prequel and sequel to the ‘06 hit about King Leonidas and his band of 300. The new movie’s nearly 4x Reality factor stems from Frank Miller’s graphic novel, full of vainglorious liberties, supernatural contrivances and historic compression.

   What we have here is Western Civilization vs. Eastern Subjugation. If Greece doesn’t win, there is no Western Civ: no Renaissance, no Shakespeare, no Rolling Stones. Pity then that Noam Murro and Zack Snyder employ ridiculous reality liberties and disappointing that their movie didn’t take on a political meme, what with its Persian leader fashioning himself a God, or at least God’s infallible consul on this mortal Earth. IOW, WWHH is an Iranian autocrat foisting megadeath on this mortal coil, our mortal coil.

   A key element of Western Civ pokes through in a great line repeated twice in Murro and Snyder’s movie.

   Freedom vs Freedom without Consequence and Responsibility

   The latter isn’t freedom, at least as Western Liberalism defines it. Kudos for making this the plot pivot.

   300 will remain the bigger hit, but I rate Rise of an Empire the better movie.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   Sullivan Stapleton stands tall and strong as Athenian General Themistokles. Don’t worry. They know how to pronounce that name in the movie. Stapelton comes to the Alpha Male role naturally, a point he proved as one of the strapping older brothers in Animal Kingdom, a true-crime story from his native Australia.

   Eva Green is great in the movie’s best performance by far. Her Queen Artemisia is a credible power behind the throne, commander of a great navy and a world class super badass. Badasses make action movies go.

   Everyone else is merely very good, Sullivan Stapleton included.

   • Lena Headey’s Spartan Queen Gorgo, widow of great King Leonidas
   • Rodrigo Santoro as Xerxes, Persian God-King. The God part was unnecessary.
   • Igal Naor as his father, King Darius
   • Hans Matheson, Callan Mulvey, David Wenham, Jack O’Connell and Andrew Tiernan as various Greek heroes with unpronounceable names.

5. Male Stars Very Good 3.5

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

   Eva Green

7. Female Costars Good 3.0

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    Very Good 3.5

    300 II is definitely live action, albeit with freeze frames of animated blood flying all over the place. Thus it feels more alive than 300 did, as the first movie felt more animated than acted.

    Notable Credits

    • 80 stunts
    • 30 costumers
    • 30 sick makeup
    • 300 VFX
    • 100 people working on 3D conversions. They did a heck of a job, as I found the 3D to be worth it.

11. Direction Great 4.0

12. Play OK 2.5

13. Music Very Good 3.5

    Black Sabbath’s War Pigs well used over the closing credits.

14. Visuals Really Great 4.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Horrid 3.7

    3, 4, 4 for Erotic, Savage and Nasty make 300: Rise of an Empire Horrid overall.

    Breasts get bared, rape is a weapon of war and Eva Green’s Queen & Commander Artemisia uses wild sex as a way of getting her way with Greece. Not just the country, but the Empire that was about to rise.

    Blood is the dominate image however. Lots of it, so much so they do typography with it.

17. Sex Erotic 3.0

18. Violence Savage 4.0

19. Rudeness Nasty 4.0

21. Reality

    Supernatural 3.7

    Which Empire? The Greek Empire and by extension, the Western World. Nevermind that the Greeks were hardly paragons of liberalism, even the sophisticated Athenians. Slave labor was wide and indiscriminate.

    What of the Persians? Here’s a fun fact. Xerxes, the God-King in the movie, is known to Jews through the millennia as Ahasuerus, star of the Book of Esther, from which the Purim holiday derives.

22. Circumstantial Supernatural 3.9

23. Biological Fantasy 4.2

24. Physical Surreal 3.0