Close Menu
TechCentralTechCentral

    Subscribe to the newsletter

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    WhatsApp Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    • News

      Boom gates go hi-tech at South African malls

      17 July 2025

      Megayachts and mansions: the lavish life of 80-year-old Larry Ellison

      17 July 2025

      Mobile money lifts Africa savings to decade high

      17 July 2025

      South Africa loosens media ownership rules – but keeps one hand on the remote

      16 July 2025

      Eskom targets 32GW green energy shift by 2040

      16 July 2025
    • World

      Grok 4 arrives with bold claims and fresh controversy

      10 July 2025

      Samsung’s bet on folding phones faces major test

      10 July 2025

      Bitcoin pushes higher into record territory

      10 July 2025

      OpenAI to launch web browser in direct challenge to Google Chrome

      10 July 2025

      Cupertino vs Brussels: Apple challenges Big Tech crackdown

      7 July 2025
    • In-depth

      The 1940s visionary who imagined the Information Age

      14 July 2025

      MultiChoice is working on a wholesale overhaul of DStv

      10 July 2025

      Siemens is battling Big Tech for AI supremacy in factories

      24 June 2025

      The algorithm will sing now: why musicians should be worried about AI

      20 June 2025

      Meta bets $72-billion on AI – and investors love it

      17 June 2025
    • TCS

      TCS+ | Samsung unveils significant new safety feature for Galaxy A-series phones

      16 July 2025

      TCS+ | MVNX on the opportunities in South Africa’s booming MVNO market

      11 July 2025

      TCS | Connecting Saffas – Renier Lombard on The Lekker Network

      7 July 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E4: Takealot’s big Post Office jobs plan

      4 July 2025

      TCS | Tech, townships and tenacity: Spar’s plan to win with Spar2U

      3 July 2025
    • Opinion

      A smarter approach to digital transformation in ICT distribution

      15 July 2025

      In defence of equity alternatives for BEE

      30 June 2025

      E-commerce in ICT distribution: enabler or disruptor?

      30 June 2025

      South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

      17 June 2025

      AI and the future of ICT distribution

      16 June 2025
    • Company Hubs
      • Africa Data Centres
      • AfriGIS
      • Altron Digital Business
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Altron Group
      • Arctic Wolf
      • AvertITD
      • Braintree
      • CallMiner
      • CambriLearn
      • CYBER1 Solutions
      • Digicloud Africa
      • Digimune
      • Domains.co.za
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • Incredible Business
      • iONLINE
      • Iris Network Systems
      • LSD Open
      • NEC XON
      • Network Platforms
      • Next DLP
      • Ovations
      • Paracon
      • Paratus
      • Q-KON
      • SevenC
      • SkyWire
      • Solid8 Technologies
      • Telit Cinterion
      • Tenable
      • Vertiv
      • Videri Digital
      • Wipro
      • Workday
    • Sections
      • AI and machine learning
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud services
      • Contact centres and CX
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Electronics and hardware
      • Energy and sustainability
      • Enterprise software
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Lifestyle
      • Motoring
      • Public sector
      • Retail and e-commerce
      • Science
      • SMEs and start-ups
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Events
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home » Editor's pick » 300: Empire is a Xerxes xerox

    300: Empire is a Xerxes xerox

    By Lance Harris9 March 2014
    Twitter LinkedIn Facebook WhatsApp Email Telegram Copy Link
    News Alerts
    WhatsApp
    Rodrigo Santoro as Persian god-king Xerxes
    Rodrigo Santoro as Persian god-king Xerxes

    It’s taken nearly eight years, but at last we have a sequel to Zack Snyder’s 300, just in case anyone was asking for such a thing. Co-written and produced by Snyder, and directed by green hand Noam Murro, 300: Rise of an Empire is a timid and forgettable follow-up to a film that was, at its time, divisive yet memorable.

    300: Rise of an Empire runs roughly in parallel to 300’s chronicle of the suicidal stand that Leonidas and his 300 Spartan warriors took against an invading Persian Army at the Hot Gates. This time around, the glory goes to the Athenians, led by a brilliant general and politician called Themistokles, as they spur with the Persian navy on the Aegean Sea. Needless to say, the new film hews as close to the historical record as the previous — in other words, not at all.

    The film stumbles from its opening moments as Queen Gorgo of Sparta (played by Lena Headey, returning as the wife of Leonidas), promises a tidal wave of heroes’ blood in a clumsy expository voiceover that strives for grandeur and attains only pomposity. To cut a long story short, the gold-spangled, effete Persian king Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) is back to have his vengeance on the Greeks after Themi killed his dad Darius some years before during the Battle of Marathon.

    If that’s not bad enough, Xerxes’ enormous navy is commanded by the ruthless Artemisia, a fearsome warrior and tactician who has her own reasons for wanting to make the Greeks suffer. Eva Green’s vampy performance as Artemisia is the single best thing of a film that wades in mediocrity for most of its 100-minute running time. Green’s Artemisia is charged with carnal energy and motivated by malice, yet there’s a hint of mischief as she purrs and growls through her often ridiculous lines.

    Themistokles (played by young Aussie actor Sullivan Stapleton) is meant to be the hero as the leader of the six-packed Athenians, who’re as fond of running around nearly in the buff as their Spartan allies from 300. But his bland nobility is no match for the delectable evil of his battlefield adversary; he also cuts a far less mythic figure than Gerard Butler’s towering Leonidas in 300. Turning one of ancient Greece’s most fascinating figures into a modern action hero fighting for an “experiment” called “democracy” does him little justice.

    300 is one of the two Zack Snyder films that I care for (the other being his Dawn of the Dead remake). It was, for its time, a tasty pulp of videogame kinetics, comic book aesthetics and ancient history. Its thick-brushed outlines, the cold and unnatural hues of its colour palette, unearthly CGI backdrops, and the bombast of the lines barked out by its cast felt perfect for its operatic treatment of the Battle of Thermopylae.

    Green arrow: Artemisia takes aim
    Green arrow: Artemisia takes aim

    Framed as a rousing battle tale told to Spartan warriors about to charge into the Battle of Plataea, 300 was an original update on the sword-and-sandal genre that was cleverer (though maybe only slightly) than it was given credit for. The sequel is, by comparison, tired and rather silly. There’s much here that doesn’t make sense, including a bizarrely gratuitous sex scene that made the audience titter in the screening I attended.

    Murro does a passable imitation of Snyder’s directorial style — down to the claret that sprays across the screen in 3D slow motion every time a vein is sliced or an artery slashed in one of the battles — but never finds a groove of his own. He handles some of the naval battles well, pitting outnumbered, nimble Greek vessels against a vast, lumbering Persian fleet.

    Not only does Murro fail to set himself apart from Snyder’s direction, he struggles to differentiate Rise of an Empire from the many inferior films 300 has influenced over the past eight years. Part of the problem, perhaps, is that Snyder was working off strong source material in Frank Miller’s graphic novel 300. He lovingly translated the imagery to the big screen, effectively using the comic book as a storyboard, and drew on the same words from Herodotus and other classical sources that Miller used for his dialogue.

    This time, Snyder and Murro were more or less left to their own devices because Miller has yet to complete his 300 follow-up, simply called Xerxes. The writing lacks the epic resonance of 300, the shots are unimaginatively framed and the narrative lacks the earlier film’s sense of urgency and heroic destiny. As the wolfish Artemisia bears down on the dull Greeks, you’re almost rooting for her to win.  — (c) 2014 NewsCentral Media



    300 300: Empire 300: Rise of an Empire Lance Harris
    Subscribe to TechCentral Subscribe to TechCentral
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email Copy Link
    Previous ArticleBackspace: ‘Last requests’
    Next Article SA operators jostle for spectrum

    Related Posts

    TechCentral’s top 10 movies of 2019

    31 December 2019

    TechCentral’s top 10 games of 2019

    23 December 2019

    The best movies of 2018

    31 December 2018
    Company News

    Ransomware in South Africa: the human factor behind the growing crisis

    16 July 2025

    Mental wellness at scale: how Mac fuels October Health’s mission

    15 July 2025

    Banking on LEO: Q-KON transforms financial services connectivity

    14 July 2025
    Opinion

    A smarter approach to digital transformation in ICT distribution

    15 July 2025

    In defence of equity alternatives for BEE

    30 June 2025

    E-commerce in ICT distribution: enabler or disruptor?

    30 June 2025

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2025 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.