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300: Rise of an Empire (2014)
300: Rise of an Empire (2014)
2014 | Action, Drama
Story: 300: Rise of an Empire starts by right where the previous one finished with Xerxes (Santoro) taking the head of Leonidas. Queen Gorgo (Headey) is leading the next onslaught on the Persians.

I think we go prequel with Themistokles (Stapleton) leading the Greek army back against the Persians before they can take any of the Greek cities. The battle leads to the death of King Darius (Naor) leads to Artemisia (Green) and Xerxes son of Darius go on the revenge mission with Xerxes entering into the world of the Gods becoming a God King.

Themistokles goes to Sparta to build a united Greece while Xerxes is waiting for word from the messenger sent. We learn of Artemisia is Greek by descent and is out for revenge on any Greek person she finds after they raped and murdered her whole family. Themistokles builds his navy army for a battle on the sea against the Persian fleet leading to epic battles on the ocean. What follows is a string of battles each one with the other trying to get the upper hand.

Suffering a defeat Themistokles uses his defeat and the Spartans defeat as fuel to unite Greece once and for all as they take the battle to a conclusion once and for all.

300: Rise of an Empire does play the idea of following another side of the battle really well, mixing between the prequel elements and sequel elements. The main problem is that the scenes of the battles come off very confusing which is the main reason for the story. It does show the new historical legends even though they are lesser known names. It really ends up feeling like a forced sequel that has come too late after the first one. I feel this focuses too much on its action sequences and the story falls into the background after a while. (5/10)

 

Actor Review

 

Sullivan Stapleton: Themistokles Greek warrior who leads the navy fleet into battles on the sea against the Persians after he kills their King Darrius. Sullivan does give a good performance and looks the part. (7/10)

 themstokles

Eva Green: Artemisia leader of the Persian naval unit who also plays Xerxes to go into combat the way she wants to win the war. Eva gives a good performance and makes for a great villainous role. (7/10)

 green

Rodrigo Santoro: Xerxes God King of Persia who is at battle with the Spartans and the Greeks. Rodrigo gives a solid performance and has to get praised for the look he ends up having after the makeup. (7/10)

erxes

Support Cast: 300: Rise of an Empire has a huge support cast that are all warriors in either side of the battle.

 

Director Review: Noam Murro – Noam does a solid job directing making the action look very good but doesn’t pull the story through as much as he should be. (6/10)

 

Action: 300: Rise of an Empire can’t be denied about how good the action is even if the naval moments come off confusing at times. (8/10)

War: 300: Rise of an Empire really is one of the war films that really do end up putting the fantasy into legend. (7/10)

Settings: 300: Rise of an Empire creates settings that look the part for the time of the battles. (7/10)
Special Effects: 300: Rise of an Empire has great effects at time but slowly start to feel over used. (7/10)

Suggestion: 300: Rise of an Empire is one to be watched if you enjoyed the first one but not the most interesting for the first time viewer. (Fans Watch)

 

Best Part: Final battle looks good.

Worst Part: A Horse on a boat, really?

Action Scene Of The Film: Final Battle.

 

Believability: No (0/10)

Chances of Tears: No (0/10)

Chances of Sequel: Left open for another sequel.

Post Credits Scene: No

 

Oscar Chances: No

Box Office: $337 Million

Budget: $110 Million

Runtime: 1 Hour 42 Minutes

Tagline: Seize your glory

Trivia: The original script featured King Leonidas from 300 (2006), but he was ultimately cut out. This was due to Gerard Butler, who turned down to reprise his role as Leonidas, since it “wasn’t really [his] thing”.

 

Overall: Sequel we didn’t really need

https://moviesreview101.com/2015/05/17/300-rise-of-an-empire-2014/
  
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ClareR (5674 KP) rated The Porpoise in Books

Nov 6, 2019  
The Porpoise
The Porpoise
Mark Haddon | 2019 | Crime, History & Politics, Mystery, Thriller
8
6.3 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
The last book of Mark Haddon’s I read was The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time - and this is absolutely NOTHING like that. This novel is set in two time periods: modern day and Ancient Greece. Haddon has used the story of Apollonius and Shakespeare’s Pericles and worked them into both timelines. I hadn’t read anything about either of these stories to be honest, but after a quick look on the internet (thank you Wikipedia!) I felt a little better informed - although I do think that you would be able to read the book perfectly well without any knowledge of either Apollonius or Pericles.

This is not a comfortable read at all - abuse and incest feature strongly throughout the modern timeline (in the style of all good Greek Tragedies!). I did think about not continuing with the book at one point because I tend to avoid books with these themes, but the story really drew me in, particularly in the Greek timeline.

The way in which we initially move from modern day to Ancient Greece, using the yacht ‘The Porpoise’ to achieve this, was really cleverly done, I thought. The small parts which featured Shakespeare and his Pericles writing partner George Wilkins, seemed to be only loosely connected, but enjoyable nonetheless.

All in all, I really enjoyed this. I’m glad I stuck with it, because especially (but not exclusively!) in the case of the incest storyline, we really do see the strength of women, even though the men in their lives would want them to be cowed and obedient.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book.