Like its 2007 predecessor, “300: Rise of an Empire” is lusty parade of six-pack abs and copious bloodlettings, set against a historical backdrop that’s been washed through the spin cycle of modern fantasy tropes.
It has all the violence of the last movie, though no equally compelling figure like Gerard Butler’s commanding Leonidas, and certainly none of the verve and wit. If the last movie was dumb-but-glorious, the sequel is the same, minus the glory.
Set soon after the Battle of Thermopylae, “Rise of an Empire” depicts the sea battle between the forces of Persian god/king Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and the Greek armies, led by Athenian general Themistocles (Sullivan Stapleton). Artemisia (Eva Green) is his primary nemesis, a ferocious military leader with a mysterious and tragic background.
The blood and guts fly prodigiously, and new director Noam Murro copies predecessor Zack Snyder’s penchant for speeding up and slowing down the action so we can gaze at the beautiful ribbons of crimson arcing across the screen. This movie has few of the mythological beasties of the last one, so it’s essentially man-on-man carving of flesh.
There are a lot of silly moments here, but probably the goofiest is when Themistocles and Artemisia hold a parley prior to the battle, which soon devolves into much grabbling of flesh. It’s supposed to be sexy; instead it’s laugh-out-loud awful.
Even if you’re a teenager or still one in heart, “300: Rise of an Empire” quickly grows tiresome, then pathetic.
The video comes with a decent-enough array of extra features, including a making-of documentary titled “The 300 Effect.” There are also featurettes on “Real Leaders & Legends,” “Women Warriors,” “Savage Warships” and “Becoming a Warrior.”
Audiences were torn asunder over "300," the 2007 over-the-top bloodletting set against the (largely fictionalized) backdrop of the Battle of Thermopylae -- including me. The sober critic found it a transcendently silly movie, but my inner 15-year-old thought it cool beyond reasoning.
The entirely unnecessary sequel picks things up where they left off ... well, to be more accurate, it picks up 10 year prior to Spartan King Leonidas' brave, doomed stand with 300 men against the entire Persian army, then it flips to slightly before, and then slightly after, that battle. Part of the new film's fatal downfall is we're never quite sure how what we're seeing relates to the greater conflict.
Set largely at sea, "300: Rise of an Empire" features much of the stylized action of its predecessor, with men cutting each other apart in slow-mo, beautiful ribbons of crimson blood arcing toward the camera.
(For extra exposure to the spurting and squirting, see it in 3-D. Or don't.)
But it lacks any of the visceral punch of the original, and certainly has no figure to match with Gerard Butler's commanding Leonidas. The dastardly 8-foot-tall god/king Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) is back, briefly, but following a pithy origin story he exists mostly in the backdrop while his pet general, Artemisia (Eva Green), takes the fight to the Greeks with her armada of 1,000 ships.
Sullivan Stapleton is our stalwart stand-in as Themistocles, an Athenian general who (according to the prologue) slew Xerxes' father in an old battle, and now must unite the fractious city-states of Greece into a free nation and face down the invading horde.
Of course, it soon becomes personal between the opposing leaders, with the slithery Artemisia supplied a frightening backstory about an epic wrong committed against her by Greek soldiers. Themistocles is more mysterious, a charismatic but solitary leader -- and apparently a chaste one, too, preparing monk-like his entire life for this great battle.
In keeping with the franchise's signature mix of goofiness and self-seriousness, the pair enjoy a bedding before their inevitable showdown that's somehow even more violent than when they're playing with swords.
Previous director Zack Snyder, who seemed harmonically in tune with Frank Miller's lusty graphic novel, returns here as producer and co-screenwriter (with Kurt Johnstad). New director Noam Murro, whose only other feature film credit is the comedy "Smart People," lacks Snyder's primeval feel for the material, so that even the many beheadings and eviscerations are curiously flat and emotionless. It's like watching a butcher cleave lifeless flesh.
The first "300" also had a more fantastical element, with a pantheon of supernatural creatures filling out Xerxes' horde. Here, it's pretty much workaday guys trading spears and arrows from the decks of their ships, then switching to swords after they ram and grapple. Though once again, somehow every single Greek soldier boasts washboard abs. (The ancients were into cutting carbs and stomach crunches, don'cha know.)
"300: Rise of an Empire" kept the silliness of the original film but lost all its glorious verve. The combatants carve each other up prodigiously, but the mayhem carries no sting. It's got all the blood, but none of the guts.
The boys of the Cody clan are facing the end of days. Their zenith as Australia's most notorious bank robbers has passed, with the corrupt Melbourne police no longer willing to look the other way in exchange for some fat envelopes. "Pull your heads in," advises one still-friendly detective.
The Codys do not pull their heads in, because that is not who the Codys are. Here is who the Codys are: When volatile Craig Cody (Sullivan Stapleton) gets flipped off by some punks at a stoplight, he pursues them into an alley, hands a pistol to his teen nephew Joshua (James Frecheville) and orders him, "Let 'em know who's king."
"Animal Kingdom," the tense, gritty crime thriller from Oz is the story of Joshua, and what it's like to be suddenly thrust into a family that nourishes itself on fear instead of love. He's afraid of the cops, but even more terrified of his crazy uncles -- especially the oldest and craziest, Andrew "Pope" Cody (a chilling, unhinged Ben Mendelsohn).
Writer/director David Michôd constructs a slippery narrative that consistently fools the audience about where the movie is heading. The result is part "Donnie Brasco," part "Godfather" and more than a little bit Ma Barker.
For those who don't remember Ma Barker, she was the mother of a similar brood of killers during the 1930s, until she and her son Fred were gunned down in what is still the longest shoot-out in FBI history. The legend has long persisted that Ma secretly ran the gang, since lawmen would not suspect a grandmotherly figure of orchestrating kidnappings and murders.
Her myth has been fodder for several movies over the years, most famously "White Heat" starring James Cagney.
(Interesting aside: For several years I lived next door to the house where the Barker shoot-out took place. The same family that rented it to the Barkers still owns it. They fixed most of the bullet holes but left a few for nostalgia. An annual recreation of the gunfight is the height of the social season.)
The "Ma" character here is played by Jacki Weaver, as a smiling, pleasant-looking woman of late middle years who seems to be the calm at the center of the storm of criminal activity all around here. Her sons show up on her doorstep, often drugged up or on the lam, and she offers a cheerful grin and something to eat.
Ma Cody welcomes the arrival of her grandson Joshua, or "J", after his mother overdoses on heroin. He becomes a witness and unwilling participant in their cycle of crime. Over time, it becomes clear to J -- and the audience -- that his grandmother is much more than an enabler in denial.
Besides Pope and Craig, there's Darren (Luke Ford), who's only a little older than J and still has some of his innocence, too. Barry "Boz" Brown (Joel Edgerton) is an extended member of the family who recognizes that the criminal life pays only short-term dividends. He urges Pope to put his money in the stock market, and by Pope's bewildered reaction we can see it's like telling a wolf not to hunt.
Guy Pearce has a terrific role as Nathan Leckie, the detective tasked with bringing the Cody boys in. Leckie quickly zeroes in on J as the weak link, and pursues him with a relentless professionalism that borders on friendliness. He doesn't use threats, just logic and patience.
Leckie recognizes the corruption and abuse that exists within law enforcement, and works to nudge things in the right direction as much as his position will allow. Given the brutal way police are often depicted in "Animal Kingdom," his even-keeled pragmatism gives him an almost heroic aura.
The film is certainly worthwhile, though I found a few pieces missing. J remains too much of a blank slate throughout the movie, but by the end we're supposed to believe he has absorbed all the lessons that both cops and robbers had to teach him. It's never a good thing when your main character is the least interesting person on the screen.
