Trailer: ‘300: Rise of an Empire’ Still a Thing, We Guess

Originally slated for release this summer, 300: Rise of an Empire is marching its way to theaters next…March.

300rise

The followup to the 2006 film adaptation of Frank Miller’s 300 boasts the same slick sheen along with at least three of its stars. David Wenham’s one-eyed Dilios is the sole survivor of that titular force. Lena Hedey’s Queen Gorgo also returns as King Leonidas’ widow and a bit of a rally crier as well. Don’t forget Rodrigo Santoro as the larger than life warmonger-turned god Xerxes. Wait. Four stars. We forgot Zack Snyder’s signature slow motion reaving. As for Snyder himself, he’s hanging back as co-writer and producer. This one’s directed by Noam Murro, whose previous feature was 2008’s Smart People, starring Dennis Quaid, Thomas Hayden Church, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page and nary a hunchback or decapitation. Remember that one? Yeah, that guy’s making a sequel to 300.

Rise of an Empire turns its attention to the historic naval battle of Artemesium circa 480 BC. So there’s lots of boats and water and stuff. Eva Green’s in it too. A whole mess of people, actually. And horses.

Let’s take a look.

 

After Immortal and the Wrath of the Titans series hitched a ride of Leonidas’ chariot in the intervening years, I’m not entirely sure whether there’s still a demand for this sub-genre of chroma-keyed sword and sandal jaunts, but time will tell.

 


Comments

  1. I am not sure why this message is so snarky. It might be good, it looks interesting. You just seem to be very negative on it.

    • Avatar photo Paul Montgomery (@fuzzytypewriter) says:

      I like boats well enough.

    • @kirkjt: Yeah I agree, the snark is completely unnecessary.

    • I’m with Paul, this looks terrible.

    • The snark is unnecessary? I don’t think so. This is the definition of cash grab sequel nobody ever asked for. I am amazed that its not straight to DVD for that sucker.

    • Avatar photo Paul Montgomery (@fuzzytypewriter) says:

      I actually do apologize if my candor offends or frustrates anyone genuinely excited about the movie. Personally I’m finding it a bit difficult to muster any enthusiasm for this one. Not that I have much love for the first one, but it still feels like the, ahem, ship has sailed.

    • It can be frustrating. We get a steady stream of screeds from this site (and others) about avoiding negativity and allowing everyone to have their own thing in fandom, and then have writers drip scorn all over a project we have seen a trailer and a small handful of information for. Looks like even the mighty comics journalists are mere human-beings like the rest of us (a shocking revelation no doubt).

    • @Paul Montgomery: That’s fine if you think it’s a cash grab, I tend to agree, and I share your lack of excitement about this sequel but the tone of the article just caught me off guard. That’s all. In a review I expect the tone and opinion of the author to come through, I’m just not used to that from this site when it comes to more factual, announcement style articles.

    • @USPUNX: We do it all the time. It’s pretty much our thing.

    • @conor: Fair enough, I’ll admit when I’m wrong! Maybe it was just this one piece but for whatever reason the tone just caught me off guard and kind of rubbed me the wrong way. Paul, I am a fan of your writing so don’t take this one instance as an overall criticism!

    • Even the comic its based on was a cash-grab by Miller. So sorry for cynicism, but I’d rather be proven wrong than happily clap my hands and drool at every little thing.

    • How was the comic a cash grab? It won like three or four Eisners.

    • One thing I appreciate about this site and the podcast is that you aren’t a bunch of “yes” men. If you think something sucks, you say so. You don’t try to market it with a bunch of exclamation points after each sentence, but a lot of sites do that.

      However, I would expect a more impartial write-up of a movie that a lot of people on here might be excited about. Feel free to bash it in the comments section all you want, tough.

    • Avatar photo Paul Montgomery (@fuzzytypewriter) says:

      I don’t like the phrase “cash grab.” For the record.

      Listen. I don’t think this is artless. I’m just not excited about it. I’m intrigued, though, that it’s moving forward eight years after the original. And I knew some of our readers would be interested for various reasons too, so I shared it.

      My intent wasn’t to be snarky, really. Bemused, was what I was feeling at the time. Maybe it comes off more hostile than that though.

  2. I saw Smart People, interesting directorial choice. Could be good…looks more entertaining than The Wolverine by quite a bit.

    • Agreed. The Wolverine looks about half a step better than Origins.

    • Avatar photo Paul Montgomery (@fuzzytypewriter) says:

      Why are we using The Wolverine as a litmus test for…anything?

    • @Paul: I used it because it seems like a similarly unnecessary and cynical cash grab.

    • @Paul- True words. I used it because I just saw the international trailer post. It looks awful and that’s saying something after Origins. I don’t expect this to be great. I dug 300 and tend to like sword and sandal battle epics but am not expecting to be blown away. Could be fun on the big screen though.

  3. The visuals look amazing – should be fantastic on the big screen!

  4. This looks more suited for a straight to DVD or a syfy channel movie.

  5. I will totally rent this movie just for Eva Green. She’s not only a talented actress but she’s also quite the looker.

  6. You know what I love? How they are already slapping “From the Director of… Man of Steel” into the trailer. No one ever saw “From the Director of… Green Lantern”, now did we? Man of Steel is going to ROCK!

  7. Yeah this movie looks cheap considering how great 300 looked. The movie has been copied visually so many times now this looks so blase in comparison. Shame that this had, apparently, been in production hell because if it came out sooner it might have had a chance. Well that and maybe if Frank Miller didn’t go completely down the rabbit hole it might have been better too.

  8. So. Freaking. METAL!!!

  9. THIS! IS! SEQUEL!

  10. I always thought the Battle of Artemisium/Salamis could make for a great movie. Don’t know about this though…

  11. This and the new trailer for “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” both seem dated. Either with this latest generation of Playstations and X-Boxes or the next, video game graphics will be on par with if not superior to CGI. If anything, what Hollywood can still do that can’t be done in video games or on TV is build sets, have scenes with tons of extras, and have real car chases that result in seemingly massive explosions (even if all that’s being blown up is a scale model). With the advent and increasing ubiquity of 3D printing, it seems easier and cheaper than ever to create models, props, costumery, and prosthetics. However this just looks like a video game I can’t play.

    • While I agree this trailer has a video gamey look to it, home consols are nowhere near comparable to top notch visual effects. I play a lot of video games and they can’t create anything even near the quality of the effects in something like Star Trek Into Darkness or what I’ve seen in the Pacific Rim trailers. I’ve been playing video games since the Atari and they have come an amazing distance, and I’m sure the PS 4 and XBox One will be the most impressive yet, but they can’t even touch what the top tier effects houes can do.

    • I also don’t think it’s quite fair to characterize the penetration of 3D printers as “increasing ubiquity.”

    • Avatar photo Paul Montgomery (@fuzzytypewriter) says:

      This is not a forum to discuss sexual dalliances with 3D printers.

    • Hahahahaha. My wife loves when I work “increasing ubiquity” into our pillow talk.

    • A round of touches for everybody.

    • As someone who works in visual effects, you would be surprised what is VFX in a movie that you don’t even know. Trust me there is a big big difference between good Hollywood vfx and video game graphics.

    • @ed: Yeah that’s a great point. For instance in The Dark Knight, in every shot in Bruce’s penthouse everything outside the windows was VFX.

  12. That’s a lot of lightning.

    Rental.

  13. Cool visuals, wonder if there will be a good story to back it… however looks like it may still be a fun theater going experience.

  14. This battle certainly deserves a film, since it changed the course of history. If the Greeks did not defeat the Persians — no Western civilization. I think the “sword and sandal” genre will always be relevant. It’s just that Hollywood will produce a spate of bad movies set in the classical era, they will do poorly, and everyone will say that the genre is officially out of style. “Spartacus” seems to have been a decent hit on TV, and there are huge video game sword and sandal franchises, so Hollywood is probably encouraged.