300: Rise of an Empire

So at the beginning of this movie when they said the protagonists name, I was like he sounds like the name of a street drug, Themistokles. If that street drug made you a bad ass warrior then you get to keep the name.

Set as a companion piece to the original movie, Rise covers the naval battle that happened in the north of Greece to protect Athens from the Persians. It also covers the story of why Xerxes hates the Greeks and how he became the God King. I will say in a not too spoilerish way that the end of this movie teased an awesome battle just like at the end of 300, that we also didn’t get to see, but it also takes place 6 months before the end battle in the first movie, which happened a year after the fall of Leonidas.


10 years before the events of 300, King Darius and his Persian army tried to invade Greece, but the Athenians, led by Themistokles, attacked before they had completely disembarked from their ships. In the heat of battle Themistokles witnessed Darius on a boat and took his chance to end the battle, by loosing an arrow upon him. Seeing the fate about to befall his father Xerxes tried to save him, but it was too late Themistokles’ arrow found its mark and the Persians retreated.

Darius warned Xerxes not to take revenge on the Greeks, but his hate blinded him as well as the counsel of the Kings greatest general, Artemisia, who convinced Xerxes that he could become a God and wipe the Greeks from existence.

Artemisia, is said to be unrivaled at naval combat, but Themistokles puts that to the test.


I did the best thing ever which was to watch 300 right before seeing this movie, and let me tell you, that was a great experience. There were a few things that happened at the end of this that made me want to see how they happen so I could see how they tied into the army vs. army battle at the end of the first movie. There were some fun cameos in the movie, but with the fact that the only way we saw Leonidas in the movie was the way we saw him, I doubt Gerard came back, I think they CG overlaid characters interacting with him from the original movie. The thing that bothered me in the movie was that they replayed the second in command father son story from 300, the only difference was the father didn’t want the son there in this movie, the son snuck in to the war camp.

The movie was a little bit better than the original, but it also didn’t feel like the same movie (I know it was different directors), maybe because they used a blue tint, to mirror the sea, whereas the first used a brown tint, for the land. There was a bigger story at play in this one as well, where I felt the first movie could have used some of it. My hope is that someone will do a master cut and make one movie in chronological order, I think that would be amazing.

In conclusion, if you are in to these kinds of movies see it in theaters, the 3D IMAX made the naval battle really interesting, but it isn’t necessary for enjoying the movie.



I give it a 4 out of 5

Written by Jeff Potts