pure Hollywood, nothing more This movies predecessor, the 300, is known to be extremely inaccurate. This movie however is considerably more inaccurate. It is so full of Hollywood cliches, that it is laughable!!! If you want pure Entertainment with little thought of accuracy then this will fit that bill. If you want any accuracy at all, then look elsewhere. For example, this movie would have you believe that the "Huge" Spartan navy made all the difference at Salamis. Historically, only 16 Spartan triremes were there.

Bad trip on LSD First off 300 was an extremely good movie. This one was about simply horrible. Went ahead and bought it last night and the slow-mo action and horrific blood splatter reminded me of a Quentin tarratino (sp) movie. It was horrific what the director done with this movie. Ship battle after ship battle. Was definitely not what I expected!

All over the map... I'm sorry folks. I loved the original "300". It's one of my top-10 favorites. I dropped the ball and bought this one, which I never do just so I could watch this early. It was just so disappointing.. First off, to put it in perspective - this is primarily all based on sea battles, so you'll need to keep that in mind. So its a different mindset. They're pretty slick, but it's like - ok, theyr'e on boats. The timing is all off over the place. I had thought that this would just pick up with everything AFTER Leonidas was defeated, but no. It takes place before, during, and afterwards. This was my biggest complaint. Xerxes wasn't even born yet - and they show how he came to be? Why is this going on now? In the beginning of this movie, they show a clip of him from original killing Leonidas (who wasn't even movie). This doesn't make sense! No real creature displays like in the first one. Xerxes minions had his allies attacking the 300 and they were from far-away lands with animals and weapons the Spartans had never seen before. None of that here. It's just the same masked soldiers. Sorry folks. Pretty ho-hum.

Great flick Hard to live up to 300 but did well. Great fight scenes and effects. Definitely a fun watch, if you liked 300 you'll like this.

So-So Still visually stunning, although in 2014 it's not as cutting-edge as it was in 2006. It's a decent dosage of glorious violence and testosterone when you're in the mood, but dragged on too long. How many times can we watch "insane battle--moving speech from protagonist--insane battle" without getting a little bored? Amazing that we have all this technology and money going into movies when the simplest thing, the core story, can bring the whole thing down. Also was really odd how they sort of took the story of what happened to the first group of Spartans in the first movie and implied that it happened at some point in the middle of this movie. So this movie seems to cover what happened before Sparta and after it. A bit confusing. Also confusing was the fact that Xerxes, fresh from his latest eyebrow waxing, basically seemed sort of useless. I mean, the guy is a God, right? Anyway, worth renting for the visual FX and the courageous performance of Eva Green.

Fake battle, real Battle, complimentary sex scene, fake battle. 300, for me, was about both the story and the combat ability of the Spartan hoplite. Athens played a pivotal role in the Persian invasion force. Had they not been there, Sparta would have fallen and Greece would have burned. As such, this movie pretty much avoids that whole thing altogether. Instead of 200 ships at Artemisium it was 50 in a circle. Instead of 366 ships at the battle of Salamis it was 4 and Themistocles on a horse. Basically, they took the most extreme stories they could and made them more unbelievable. Athens didn't burn, and all of Greece didn't suddenly spring upon the fleet at the last second. I would have much rathered that the director took the story of Themistocles and expanded upon the battle of Artemisium where he used the terrain to his advantage and then moved to Salamis. Even so, Salamis wasn't an open ocean but a small inlet. I know that these movies take a certain liberty with the story, but this was worse than creative license. It was obscene. Finally, the (apparently needed) sex scene was obvious about 10 or so minutes before hand and rather embarrassing to watch. I was disappointed in this one.

Sucked. How is this getting 5*? This story from the pages of history is a great choice to be retold especially considering Artemisia was the only female commander on either side of the Persian/Greek conflict. But the problem with this film is the character development is terrible. Artemisia is about as good as it got in terms of development. Eva Green is a good choice for the part. She has that combination of weirdness, untypical attractiveness and acting ability to make her role work. But Sullivan Stapleton wasn't that good as Themistocles and the film focused a lot on him similar to how Gerard Butler as Leonidas was the focus in the original film. Except Butler's performance is better (for what it is. 300, we're not talking Shakespeare here). The battle scenes weren't that great either. Mainly because the location shots showed the vastness of the Persian navy compared to the Athenian Navy but when the fighting started all sense of scale and depth were gone in favor of tight compact shots of isolated battles. It just felt claustrophobic with too many "Come on now..." moments of disbelief. Even the final battle and ending sucked. 2* and I'm only giving it that because I like Eva Green.

Bloody goodness This movie was just great. Did better than the first, enjoyed from start to finish.

Please Read Before Judging. Thank you. Read the synopsis people. You people who are degrating this movie, are idiots. Read the crits first before you go spending money, and then complain about your lack of research. I'm talking to the people who say this movie sucked. This simply states, "Based on Frank Millers's Graphic Novel XERXES." READ People. Thats why GOD gave us brains to READ!!!!!!!!! Not to be stupid and think unlogical. In my opinion, your all being idiots and being stupid. Either read and research, or don't say anything at all. I haven't seen the movie yet, Because I did my research before spending wastless money like you have to complain about.

Stop hating very good movie Stop listening to people who hate this movie. In reality it's very good. These people don't know a good movie if it slapped them in the face. I highly recommend this movie. Very good.

Sucks This movie is a side story of the original 300, it takes place at the same time the 300 Spartans were battling, it does not take over the fight after the 300 die. Sure cinematics and fight scenes are good but the movie gets boring, and a little pathetic.

Entertaining, but not as good as the original. 300: Rise of an Empire is a fun action movie that's sure to delivers thrills, but it falls short in living up to its predecessor. I'd say worth watching.

Idiots It is not supposed to be accurate it is based on a fictional graphic novel. It is not based on real history. My god you people are amazing in your thought process. However the movie is good for what it is (if your not stuck on historical accuracy and the original 300) I thought it was a decent movie.

I'm so angry at myself for not waiting for it to be a rental!!! I really want to say I'm not one who usually listens to reviews that critics say however with this movie I should of taken their advice and waited. This movie was in no way worth $15.00 never the less even paying $5.00 for. It was so boring. It had nothing go do with 300 the previous movie 300 accept some names they describe from 300. Dumb movie It was a messy made sloppy made movie. I want a refund ASAP!!! More like a pirate movie with wooden ships glued together and thrown in the ocean with no place to go

Horrible Excessive use of slow motion - the most I've ever seen in a movie. The fake blood in this film makes Kill Bill look tame. The MANY speeches are cheesy and corny. Much of this movie is designed to excite 13 year old repressed boys. Much like Transformers. Avoid if you have an IQ above 95.

Not as great Good effects, decent sound, not a great plot, but amazing fight scenes... all for all 3 start at most...

Bloody Lots of blood and gore. If you like that sort of thing, OK, fine. But it was just a little bit too fake for my taste. I love Roman Empire types of movies, the whole warrior types of movies, but this just didn't do it for me.

seriously? it doesnt compare to 300 lots and lots of cg blood, not a drop on most of the fighters, too many details over looked, waste of money, this movie screams that they would rather use computer generated everything because they have a low budget. and then they put an animal out of its place and make it do things that are illogical... they over dramatized in all the wrong ways. it was wired and awkward to watch. i recommend you watch it just to see how poorly this movie was made.

another good one I recommend watching this, especially if you saw the first one. Too bad Themistokels and Artemisia didn't find one another before the war, they were evenly matched. I did feel sorry for the poor horse, but then when was younger, I worried about the horses drowned when the red sea went back together. you older folks will get that....

Epic,Amazing,Great Story! I LOVE this movie! One of the Best saga movies yet. From land (300) to the sea's (300 Rise of an Empire). What a battle!