9/25/2017

300: Rise of an Empire (2014) - Murro's off-putting 3D bore sequel

 

+ 2nd Worst Movie of the Year
+ Stupidest Movie of the Year  
+ Worst Sequel of the Year

A bloody wave and the potent image of a sword-carrying warrior adorn this poster for Noam Murro's 300: Rise of an Empire

Greece is threatened by the evil Persians led by their God-like king Xerxes, partnered with a Greek-born Fury, so that Spartan leader Themistocles will have to venture out and strike them back.

The sequel to Zack Snyder's (Watchmen (2009)) great, visionary 300 (2006) is a colossal step down. It is written by Snyder and Kurt Johnstad (Atomic Blonde (2017)), based on Frank Miller's (What If? (1982)) unpublished graphic novel Xerxes, and directed by Noam Murro (Smart People (2008)).
The propulsive style of the original here degenerates into a bastardization of video games and porn, exceptionally vulgar and detached from reality, with a dedication to blood splatter that just exhausts the senses. 300: Rise of an Empire looks like a sequence in an action computer game, which just keeps going, and it results in a tremendously boring experience. - I, for one, would much rather play that game than watch this 3D turkey.
Hero Themistocles is played with a permanent look of constipation by Sullivan Stapleton (Kill Me Three Times (2014)), while Eva Green (The Salvation (2014)) brings passion to the role of the female empress, the Fury, who is the single bright spot in this mess. 300: Rise of an Empire is a strange creation, technically speaking, which has very little to do with film.

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Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 110 mil. $
Box office: 337.5 mil. $
= Box office success
[300: Rise of an Empire premiered 4 March (Hollywood) and runs 102 minutes. Filming took place in Los Angeles and in Sofia, Bulgaria from July - October 2012. The film was converted to 3D in post production. It opened #1 to a 45 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for another two weeks (#2-#5) and grossed 106.5 mil. $ (31.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Russia with 17.4 mil. $ (5.2 %) and Brazil with 17.3 mil. $ (5.1 %). Though successful commercially, the success was much smaller than that of the first film, which was a huge hit. Snyder has indicated that more sequels may be made. 300: Rise of an Empire is rotten at 43 % with a 5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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