Noam Murro’s digitized, ultra-stylized follow-up to Zack Snyder’s inexplicably popular 300 has waltzed away with an amazingly high (for March) $45 million, despite garnering an unenviable 45% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. What with this financial success perhaps already fading in our rearview mirrors, this may be the perfect time to consider what 300 means to pop culture at large.
To offer my own brief editorial (and likely piss off a good deal of readers in the process), 300: Rise of an Empire can stand as one of the slicker films in what is most certainly a wholly rotten genre; a genre, mind you, that was originally sparked by its predecessor. Ever since 300, theaters have been plagued by a steady string of pretty disposable, noisy historical epics that aren’t at all epic, and are marked particularly by historical inaccuracy, ugly digital scenery, and chest-thumping, ultra-masculine fratboy types in the lead roles. The sun doesn’t shine in these movies, and everything is muddy and hazy. 300: Rise of an Empire is a sight better than something like The Legend of Hercules, but it still celebrates war with an unseemly fervor; these are movies that play more like recruitment videos than feature films.
And while my sour opinion may synch up to the majority of critics’, it is most certainly in the minority of popular opinion, as both 300 movies have proven to be hugely successful and oddly influential. Let’s take a look at what lessons we have gleaned from Rise of an Empire.
Witney Seibold is the head film critic for Nerdist, and a contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel, and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. You can read his weekly articles Trolling, and The Series Project, and follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
What Have We Learned from 300 2?
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Eva Green is a Badass
We already knew Eva Green was a capable and passionate (not to mention hella sexy) actress from films like The Dreamers and Casino Royale, but who knew that she would be able to so capably play a fun, scenery-chewing villainess as well? Her Artemisia is part Lady Macbeth, part Marquis de Sade, and part Conan the Barbarian. This is a woman who, with her resplendent toplessness, rough sexes a dude around the room as a form of diplomacy. Eva Green is so game, and she is certainly the best thing about the film (even though her character is a little problematic; I'm not entirely comfortable with the notion that she was raped into being tough).
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This Genre is Not Dead
The audiences have spoken, and they love them some ancient mayhem, especially when it looks increasingly like a video game. 2014 has already provided three ancient world battle movies, with more on the way, and while some of them fail, all it takes is a notable success like this one to keep things afloat. I can't say I'm happy about this development – I have already expressed my distaste for these movies. But if you are a fan of them, you are sure to get more and more of them. Heck, is 300 III (303?) inevitable?
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The Video Game Aesthetic Will Live On
I don't think any of 300: Rise of an Empire was shot on location, cleaving close to the digitized, pointedly artificial aesthetic established by the original. The way the “camera” dips and weaves through the crashing ships and mounting corpses is impressive on at least a technical level. I think this spells the future of action filmmaking, and maybe filmmaking in general: films will become increasingly digital, leaving the outdoors behind in favor of more closely controlled animated environs. Sure, some action filmmakers will like stick to the tried-and-true (a real car chase will always be more exciting than a digital one), but many fantasy filmmakers will have the ease and the creative license to make movies that look more and more like video games. I will leave it up to you as to whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.
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People are Full of Pudding
Have you noticed that people are full of rust-colored pudding? In Rise of an Empire, hundreds of people die by fire, horse hoof, impalement, and arrow, but the biggest number of casualties are sliced open with deliciously phallic little gladiuses. Their wounds split open, and huge gobs – seriously, gallons – of gooey pudding-like substance spurt out of them like a hemorrhaging water balloon. If this film is an indicator, human beings are leathery sacs full of mysterious, pressurized custard.
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F*** History
While vaguely based on historical events, the 300 movies are pretty much a free-for-all when it comes to cleaving to actual facts. Costumes, customs, languages, culture, chronology, battle tactics – these are all up for grabs in the “creative license” department. If more movies like Rise of an Empire get made, then high school history teachers have an uphill battle ahead of them. Perhaps the action-packed spectaculars will, at the very least, get young students interested in history, or at least learn the name of events like the Battle of Thermopylae.
