All the same, it’s disappointing that, after all the years, no effort has been made to augment or riff on the style at all in fact, the new film is more monochromatic and duller in appearance, lacking the bold reds and rich earth tones that are glimpsed here in brief visits to Sparta and the events at Thermopylae. Visually, there was clearly a mandate to hew close to the original’s look. PHOTOS: 35 of 2014’s Most Anticipated MoviesĪlthough Gerard Butler‘s star has significantly fallen due to the 17 mediocre films he’s made since 300, he’s missed here his replacement at the top of the sequel’s cast, Australian actor Sullivan Stapleton, just can’t bellow on a par with Butler, whose cocky, over-the-top abandon and staunch physical presence leave big sandals to fill.

It would be a mild surprise if box-office results equaled those of the original, which came to $456 million worldwide (slightly more from foreign than domestic tills), but most fans will still probably want to check it out.

Centering on mostly aquatic battles that historically took place simultaneously to the Battle of Thermopylae so fancifully depicted in the earlier film, this follow-up slavishly adheres to the graphic comics-meet-video games look of the original. Other than for the pleasure of watching Green try to conquer ancient Greece dressed as a distant forebearer of Catwoman, more is less and a little late in this long-aborning sequel to the 2007 bloodbath that was stylistically extreme and just different enough from anything else in its field to become an international action sensation. Given his condition, the man does not respond but, given the bestower, it wouldn’t have been surprising if he had … just a bit. Playing the most vicious, and certainly sexiest, naval commander ever to ride the waves of the Aegean, Eva Green has a one-for-the-ages scene in 300: Rise of an Empire, in which she decapitates an adversary with two deft sword strokes, then, holding his head by the hair, kisses him on the mouth with pointedly derisive hunger.

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