I like when a movie goes straight into the action without delay and this movie is it. I had not even put the popcorn into my mouth and the action had begun with the voice of Cersei Lannister, I’m sorry, no, I meant Queen Gorgo, narrating with such power and authority that was befitting of a queen leading thousands of men into battle.

300: Rise of an Empire is kind of a sequel to 300. That is pretty obvious, isn’t it? It began with a little background story of how Themistokles became legendary and rose to political power when he killed King Darius, which he knew was a mistake because Xerxes, the son of the dead king, then seek revenge and sold his soul to the devil and became the evil “God King” that we all knew from 300. He then killed the entire Spartan army led by King “THIS IS SPARTA!” Leonidas. And the story moves from there. I would like to tell you what happened from there but I would have spoiled you the entire story and so I shall not do that.

Other than the fact that it didn’t delay the action, I love the strong female characters (good and bad) in this movie. I rarely see it in Greek/Roman-inspired movies. Female characters tend to be the damsels in distress. But this movie did otherwise. It has Queen Gorgo whom you will see from the beginning standing on a ship leading an army. Other than Queen Gorgo, there is Artemisia, who is the female villain and the commander of the Persian navy. She’s not afraid to behead her useless soldiers. Watching powerful women in battle is so satisfactory to me. “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” is befitting for this.

Another thing that I love about this movie is it kept the same texture and feel from the first movie. The battle scenes always felt like a choreography to me, a violent one but still beautiful, with even the music accompaniment. And of course, the graphics and effect are just brilliant – so many slow motion scenes so you can see the glob of blood before it splattered on the ground (or on the camera). You can even see the dust specks in the background and I wasn’t even watching it in 3D.

I give this movie a 4.5 out of 5 because it was worth my $14.50. I will be expecting another 300 movie after this one and if you watch it, you will know why I said so.

The trailer…