It has been a long wait for the sequel to the testosterone-infused blood-bath that was the movie 300. After the original movie was so successful at the box office, it was thought that a sequel would be made quickly, but sadly that was not the case. There is no need to fret anymore, because the bloody sequel that we have all been waiting for is exactly what 300: Rise of an Empire delivers on screen.
This movie takes place at the same time that Gerald Butler and his 299 Spartans partook in the Battle of Thermopylae and achieved “a beautiful victory” leaving Spartan Queen Gorgo, returning star Lena Heady, as leader of the Spartans. While this is all occurring off-screen, the movie follows the other Greeks as they attempt to defeat the Persian navy at the aquatic battle on the Aegean Sea.
Themistokles, a Greek solider at the time, killed King Darius of the Persians, God-King Xerxes’ father, in the opening scene with a perfectly placed arrow. Years later, after Xerxes mourns his father’s death and is left to wander the desert, he comes across a cave that transforms him in to the god-king we see in the first movie. Xerxes sets his sights back on Greece and attacks with full force. This is about the extent of Xerxes’ appearance in the movie, however, as he sits back and watches the battle from his golden throne.
Themistokles, who is now leader of the Greek naval fleet, is charged with leading his significantly outnumbered and undersized ships against the vast and powerful Persian navy, led by Artemisia. Artemisia, played wonderfully by Eva Green, is the character that pulls the whole movie together. After watching the raping and killing of her family, she was made a Greek ship slave where she was brutalized for years. She was then rescued by the Persian King Darius and trained in combat, only to watch Darius fall at the hands of the Greeks. She swore vengeance on the Greeks, and she intends to keep that promise. She attempts to corrupt, seduce and murder Themistokles, and the only things sharper than her tongue are her twin blades.
