However I find the first 300 film just alright and big battle films are not really my genre, somehow I was curious about ‘part 2’. Unfortunately… The fact that a new director took up this project should have made me thinking.
This time the legion of 300 Spartans are only mentioned here and there. The characters we follow are Themistokles who spectacularly shot the Persian king Darius when he tried to invade Greece; and Artemisia an abused Greek woman who turned over to the Persians and leads their attack in her vengeance together with the gayish Xerxes who wants to evenge his father Darius. The story is told by the annoying voice over of the Spartan queen Gorgo and with massive sea-battles. Like the predecessor the battles are shown with completely over-used stop-motion scenes and gushes of blood flying towards the camera (the film is obviously made to be seen in 3D which I have not). It all looks it comes out of a computer (often very much so), the acting is pretty unconvincing and the dialogues and events often silly.
During the end-titles things become clearer. The story is retold in animation style. The films are based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel “Xerxes” afterall. The way of filming seems more ‘logical’ in that setup, but I guess the film was tried to make -like Sin City- like a graphic novel.
Anyway, the first part was just alright, the second part pretty boring.
