300: Rise of an Empire **** (2014, Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green, Lena Headey, Jack O’Connell, Hans Matheson) – Film Review

Australian film and television actor Sullivan Stapleton stars as Greek general Themistocles, who leads the charge against invading Persian forces led by mortal-turned-god Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and Artemisia, vengeful commander of the Persian navy, in this very welcome sequel to 300 (2006).

Alas, Stapleton slightly proves a weak link. If they were going for an Australian as Themistocles, why didn’t they call on Chris Hemsworth, who would have been perfect? Gerard Butler is much missed from the sequel, so a stronger presence than Stapleton is needed. He’s not bad, though, he’s entirely adequate, and scrapes by.

On the other hand Eva Green is a sensation as Artemisia, dazzling as the movie’s evil queen, and Lena Headey dazzles again too, re-creating her role as the vengeful Queen Gorgo from the original film.

Green gets the kit off for a splendidly forceful, not to say violent, sex scene with Stapleton’s Themistocles, which proves one of the movie’s highlights.

The cast’s truly eccentric and eclectic, but somehow it works. Young Jack O’Connell (from Starred Up) has a lot to do as young warrior Calisto, and does it well, despite his weird cockney/Essex accent (he was born in Derby) and the black and silver battle warpaint on his face. Auckland-born Callan Mulvey looks too young to be his dad Scyllias. Stornoway-born Hans Matheson flies the flag for Scotland as Aesyklos.

The film’s visuals are even more astounding than in 2006, as you’d imagine with another eight years of technical advances. It looks bloody brilliant. The battles scenes are absolutely amazing, a total thrill ride. The 3D’s a bit pointless, only adding weight to your nose.

The story’s just basic and a bit hard to follow in all the narration and flashback early on, and it will help if you’ve seen and can still remember 300. But this doesn’t matter. It’s all about the battles and the visuals. And they are about as awesome as they come – so far. I guess we await the third film in what’s bound to be at least a trilogy.

What’s not to like? Half-naked men with big muscles and lots of makeup, women with their kit off, awesome battles with lots of hacking and chopping and killing and blood, and a historical fantasy movie that brings a comic-book look to mesmerising animated life. It all takes itself incredibly seriously, which is the only way to go with this material, and still ends up mighty entertaining. Even with all this going on, there’s hardly even a single unintentional laugh.

For the record, Gorgo sounds a made-up name but she was the daughter and the only known child of Cleomenes I, King of Sparta during the 6th and 5th centuries BC. She was the wife of King Leonidas I, Cleomenes’ half-brother, who fought and died in the Battle of Thermopylae.

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