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Monday, March 17, 2014

Movie Review: 300: Rise Of An Empire

This weekend my wife and I went to see 300: Rise Of An Empire.  Neither of us had seen the original 300 so we weren't sure what to expect but the description sounded promising so we decided to give it a shot.  Overall it was pretty good but in some spots it just tried too hard.

Without giving things away (and without seeing the first movie) it seems like Rise Of An Empire begins with the events that lead up to and follow the last stand of King Leonidas.  Overall it was a pretty good movie and we enjoyed it except for a couple of things.

1) The big one for me was at times it felt like the 3d aspect was being pushed too hard.  As I wear glasses we had opted for the regular 2d version of the movie but it was still quite obvious which bits were meant to "showcase" the 3d and a lot of them seemed a little forced.  Okay, I get that its the new viewing experience but at least try to make it fit into the flow of the picture.

2) At times the slow motion scenes were really... rreeaalllyy... rrreeeaaallllyyy... common.  At first it was like "And now its time for more slo mo... yay..." but talking with my wife afterward she made the point that maybe they were trying to capture the soldier's perspective.  In the heat of battle with the adrenaline pumping things can almost seem to slow down.  Not that I've been in battle but she did touch on our own experience during a car accident and how thinking back to it things seemed to move slower.  Looking at it that way it made more sense but in the moment it seemed a little repetitive.

Other than these particular things we both enjoyed Rise Of An Empire even without knowing the story of the first movie.  It felt like they touched on the most important aspects of it in the natural flow of the story so we weren't left wondering what they were talking about.  Is it a must see?  No but it definitely felt like it was worth the price of admission which is saying something nowadays.  Until next time...

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