300 Rise of an Empire

THIS! IS! SPECTACULAR!

It's been a busy week.  Even to the point where I didn't get a Trailer Tuesday in this week.  Thanks for visiting the site anyway.  I hope you got to catch up on some older reviews and maybe even saw the one for the movie I saw today: 300: Rise of an Empire.  In case you want to read that first and watch the trailers, you can check it out here.

My first review on my blog was the trailer for the new 300. That seems so long ago now and this will be the first movie that I've reviewed after first posting about the trailer.  What got me through my busy week was the anticipation of seeing this movie.  At the risk of having over-hyped it, I went to my favorite theater, got my IMAX 3-D tickets, and found the perfect seat.

From time to time, people say I'm a lot like Sheldon.

So was I disappointed?  Had I thought too much of it before seeing it?  Not at all, I say.  If you were a fan of the original 300 then I think you'll be in for a treat seeing this one.  It is part prequel, part parallel events, and part sequel to the first.  There was action, and blood, and gore, and abs.... so many abs.

The real centerpiece of the movie, as I had suspected in my earlier review, was the performance of Eva Green as Artemisia.  This was such a powerful character and every time she was on the screen she commanded your attention.  She was so dark and tactical and she absolutely smoldered throughout every scene in the movie through her smokey eye shadow.

Including while making other things smolder.

Apart of Eva Green, it was still a great movie.  Starting with the battle of Marathon 10 years before the events of 300 and much of this one, we see the death of Darius, Xerxes father, at the hands of Themistokles.  With the help of Eva Green, Xerxes assumes the throne as the god-king we know, intent on seeking her own revenge on the Greeks for the events of her early life.

It was a little more than her favorite band breaking up.

The main story focuses on the parallel story to Leonidas and the Spartans holding the Hot Gates from the initial ground landing of the Persian forces.  Much as in 300, Themistokles leads a small fleet of Athenian wooden ships against the thousands commanded by Artemisia.  Obviously, the odds are not in their favor.  Watching the battles unfold as they learn more about eachother was like watching them play chess with men's lives.  It also showed Artemisia becoming increasingly ruthless.

I can't really think of any criticism about the movie, except that at the beginning I was a little confused with the timeline.  I had to look for clues as to whether we had jumped into the present or were still telling the story closer to the battle of Marathon.  That passed quickly, however, and the rest of the timeline is pretty straightforward, even using the events from 300 as markers at times.

You should be thoroughly entertained going to see this movie.  If you have a weak stomach, maybe take a Tums first.  Or sneak in some Pepto in your pop.  It is just as graphic as the first, if not slightly moreso.  If for no other reason, you'll like it as you are captivated by the show put on by Eva Green.  I mentioned in my trailer review that you should have a half-chub, and the full movie will take you the rest of the way.

Time for the smolder... ;)

The Monuments Men

The Art of War

I'm a day later than usual with a review and the reason is I was hanging out with some family yesterday.  I went to my sister's for dinner and I mentioned that I was thinking about going to see The Monuments Men in the morning to review for the blog.  She asked me which movie that was and my brief description was something about it being set in World War 2 and it stars George Clooney and Matt Damon.  She suddenly seemed to know which movie I was talking about and proceeded to say something like, "Right, and they have to pull off some kind of heist?"  Apparently every movie with Clooney and Damon is an Ocean's movie.  We had a good laugh about that.

I thought we were robbing a casi... No?

It brings up a good point about his movie, tho.  Maybe some of the bigger history buffs already knew, but I had never heard of the story about these guys.  The Monuments Men is based on the true story of a group of art experts and collectors whose job it was to go to Europe to find and protect works of art.  Up until recently, I had no idea it was a true story.  When I started seeing advertisements, I thought it looked like an interesting movie that would take you through the War, but it really is so much more than that.  

This week I think I can talk about the movie without giving away too many spoiler.  The movie really takes you into World War 2.  Clooney manages to get permission to put a team together to locate and protect art for the sake of preserving culture.  All of the young guys are already over there so he assembles a team of older gents the likes of Bill Murray and John Goodman.

This'll get him ready to finally get that damn gopher.

Basically the story is the search for where the Nazis are hiding the art that they have stolen and are storing until Hitler's "Fuhrer's Museum" can be built.  Starting at Normandy Beach (after the invasion), going into France, and into Germany they pass a few major events/locations like The Battle of the Bulge.  Sure there are some funny moments, and the characters have some quirks that lighten it up, but the story is ultimately serious and becomes really gripping.

I wish I had known something about these guys before.  Even with the knowledge that they were expected to fail, they took their jobs seriously.  A couple even gave their lives for the cause of protecting the works of art and that really got me pulling for them.  You begin to love each one of them and admire what they are doing.  The mission becomes even more personal after one of their own is killed trying to protect a statue and they want to find it in his honor.

So overall, this was an excellent movie.  If you are into history at all, particularly WW2, this is perfect for you.  Even if you aren't, you'll learn a little bit and the story itself will pull you in.  Actually, this could have been fiction and it would still be an enjoyable movie.  It's just that much better because these people existed and actually DID these things.  It has a great cast and I just can't say enough about the characters they portray.  You just can't help but root for them all the way.  Knowing that we all don't speak German right now, you can imagine that the ending of the movie is a happy one.

Let's get Brad and head to Vegas.