As I loved The 300, I expected a fascinating mix of action, pathos and inspired history in this sequel. What I received was an uninspired, pathetic and unmoving piece of non-history. The bright spot was Artemisia's portrayal; what was, frankly, boring was the meaningless violence. Meaningless, because the viewer was given no reason to care for the main character, Themistokles, nor for Athens, nor for the Greeks as a whole. The back stories for why both Artemisia and Xerxes turned vengeful were compelling. (Though, as a PhD historian, I can attest they are both ludicrously false.) But for the Greeks, there simply is no backstory, no reason to care for them at all. "Oh, Athens is burning, ... meh." What is worse, the actual history could have given a plot that the film sorely lacked -- a tiny, terrified democracy is convinced, by free speech and a weird prophecy, to allow itself to be physically destroyed. Then the Greeks allow all to ride on Themistokles' desperate gamble, to trick the Persian fleet into attacking them in the straights of Salamis. (By the way, Artemisia actually tries to convince Xerxes to NOT send the fleet in.) The film gives us no portrayal of Athens, democracy, weird prophecies, or Themistokles' true brilliance. Nor does it reveal that the nascent Western world was balanced on a knife edge. Instead, we are expected to believe that a horse and Sparta come to the rescue. Pathos has become simply pathetic. Not even Ozzy's excellent "War Pigs" could keep people seated during the credits.
Review of 300: Rise of an Empire
