300: Rise of an Empire Movie Review

300: Rise of an Empire

                                                  

300: Rise of an Empire is an action drama fantasy movie released in March, 2014. As anyone can guess, this is the sequel of the epic film ‘300’. It is based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel Xerxes. 300: Rise of an Empire is written by Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad and Frank Miller and directed by Noam Murro. The major characters of this film are played by Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green, Lena Headey, Hans Matheson, David Wenham, David Wenham, Rodrigo Santoro, Jack O'Connell and Andrew Tiernan.

300: Rise of an Empire tells the story which happened before, during and after the story of its prequel 300 and the Greeks' attempts to stop the Persians from taking their homeland. 

 

Eva Green and Sullivan Stapleton in a scene of 300: Rise of an Empire

Plot:

The plot of 300: Rise of an Empire starts 10 years before the battle happened in 300. The Persians came to conquer Greece, but they got defeated by the superior tactics of Greek general Themistocles. In that battle, Themistocles kills the Persian king, who was the father of the next king, Xerxes. Xerxes comes back to his land and with the help of his father’s naval commander, Artemisia, gains his power and emerged as the ‘God King’. Artemisia was a cruel but extraordinary intelligent warrior and general of the navy, who had a shady past and was seeking her revenge on the Greeks.

10 years later, Xerxes is now again invading Greece. Themistocles manages to convince all the states of Greece to provide him ships, with which, he will stop the Persian army at the sea. He then goes to seek help from Sparta, where he learns that the Spartan king Leonidas is consulting the oracles. He comes back to his town. With the help of his friend who also works as a spy and infiltrates the Persian troops, Themistocles learns the nature of Artemisia.

Themistocles, with his troops and ships, comes face to face with Artemisia’s troops in the sea. For the first two attacks, Themistocles successfully stops the Persians from advancing and with his brilliant tactics, make the Persians retreat. The Persian army loses a good number of soldiers, where Themistocles loses only a few men.

Impressed with Themistocles’s intelligence, Artemisia invites him to her ship. She uses sex to convince him to join her team as her second-in-command. Themistocles refuses and he is sent back to the land without any harm. But he knows that Artemisia has become mad and next day they are going to face a very tough battle.

He was not wrong. On the next day, Artemisia uses her brute force and maximum of her powers to destroy the Greek ships. Both side faces heavy losses and believing that Themistocles has died, Artemisia retreats with her troops, where Themistocles is luckily saved.

On the land, Xerxes has already killed king Leonidas and has started to destroy Greek cities. Themistocles visits mourning queen Gorgo (king Leonidas’s wife) of Sparta and again asks for her assistance, where she again refuses. Before leaving, Themistocles hands her king Leonidas’s sword and asks her to avenge him.

Meanwhile, Artemisia learns that Themistocles is still alive and is again preparing for a battle. She starts for that battle without her king Xerxes’s consent. They have a little argument between them.

Themistocles’s soldiers are depressed by their loss and the refusal of their call of assistance by the Spartans. But as a perfect leader, Themistocles inspires them to fight and take their revenge. He also makes some special arrangement for himself in his ship to use on the battle. So, with his troops, he comes face to face again with Artemisia.

Sullivan Stapleton in 300: Rise of an Empire 

My review about the movie 300: Rise of an Empire:

I liked this movie, but not as much as its prequel, 300. If you are a big fan of 300, this one may even disappoint you.

The plot of 300: Rise of an Empire was good. But if you are interested to learn about what happened after 300 ends, here is the first disappointment. This one also ends without giving an exact result of the war between the Persians and the Greeks. Just like its prequel, 300: Rise of an Empire ends within the war without telling us the fate about the Greeks.

The cinematography of 300: Rise of an Empire was also good, but not as good as 300. The use of fantasy was also less, we didn’t see much of the gigantic creatures or magic.

The acting of all the characters were good. Specially, Eva Green’s performance was outstanding. Her character was also so powerful and important that several times, it felt like she was the leading character of 300: Rise of an Empire. But none other characters were as charming as the characters of 300. Almost none of the charms of the character of king Leonidas were here at the character of the hero Themistocles. His character was also not as strong as that of king Leonidas of 300. Even king Xerxes’s and queen Gorgo’s character in 300: Rise of an Empire did not seem as powerful as we saw in the prequel.

But what I missed most in 300: Rise of an Empire was the epic dialogues from 300. Although the dialogues were good, but they were nowhere near the epicness of the dialogues of 300. I really missed something like “Tonight we dine in hell”, “Madness? This is Sparta!”, “Give them nothing, but take from them everything”.

The use of special effects also seemed inferior in 300: Rise of an Empire than its sequel. Most of the special effects were limited to showing bloods in slow motion.

There are a few nude scenes in 300: Rise of an Empire. For those and other gore scenes, this is not a movie you can watch with kids.

I think if the director thought that the success of the movie 300 came only for its plot, acting and cinematography, but not for its characters and dialogues, then he has made a mistake. I loved the whole movie 300 for its art and everything from the beginning to the end seemed very artistic to me including the fighting, the gore scenes, the nude scenes and so on. But the sequel 300: Rise of an Empire lacked severely in the art.

But don't get me wrong, 300: Rise of an Empire is still a good movie, but it falls behind if you compare it with its prequel. If you are fan of 300, then you must watch 300: Rise of an Empire. Even if you feel a little disappointed, but you will not feel you time wasted by watching it.

Don't forget to visit the wikipedia link of 300: Rise of an Empire. You will find a lot of interesting historical facts about those wars by browsing the links given in the article.

So, how was your experience about 300: Rise of an Empire? Share with us in the comments.

To know more about 300: Rise of an Empire:

Wikipedia link : 300: Rise of an Empire Wiki
IMDB link :300: Rise of an Empire IMDB

To buy or rent this movie from Amazon, or to watch online, get the best deal on it here:  300: Rise of an Empire Movie

Into the White Movie Review

Into the White

                                              

Into the White is a World War 2 based drama movie released in 2012. This movie was also titled as ‘Comrade’ and ‘Cross of Honour’. This film is written by Ole Meldgaard, Dave Mango and Petter Næss and directed by Petter Næss. Into the White has a very limited set of characters for almost the full movie, which are played by David Kross, Stig Henrik Hoff, Florian Lukas, Rupert Grint and Lachlan Nieboer. This movie is based on true events.

Into the White tells us about a true event when some British and German soldiers had to share a cabin in a rough weather during World War 2 and after staying there for sometime, how their humanity, friendship and brotherhood grows more than the differences between the two teams.

A Scene from the movie Into The White

Plot:

In an aircraft battle at the sky of Norway, a German and a British plane get shot by each other. Both of them have to crash land in a snowy mountain area.  The German plane had four soldiers in it, where one of them dies at the time of crash landing and another of them gets badly hurt in one hand. A heavy storm is approaching, so they search nearby and find an empty wooden cabin. They take shelter in that cottage just before the storm hits.

Soon after that, two surviving British soldiers of the British plane also come to the cottage. The British soldiers have no firearms with them. Considering their situation and the weather outside, the Germans let them come inside the cabin and takes them as prisoners. The German leader gives two beds to two of British soldiers and also marks their place to stay inside. According to the Geneva Convention, the British soldiers demand food and the Germans provide them that. The British soldiers also demand for respect and the German leader finally agrees to that.

From the beginning, none of them behaves in any violent or attacking manner to their opposition soldiers. Both of the teams know that, in such a situation, they need each other’s cooperation to stay alive. Both of the teams have to put the rules of warfare aside and cannot pick an enemy inside the cabin. The British feel sympathy for the wounded German soldier and give tips to the German leader to ease his pain. And also the German soldiers, in spite of holding the British at gunpoint, give them respect. The British soldiers’ target is to make the Germans angry, so that, being furious, they attack the British and make a mistake. But the cool headed German leader never falls on that trap even though the others are provoked.

The storm is running continuously and the soldiers inside the cabin are running out of foods to eat and woods to burn. They start to break the woods inside the cabin to burn. Meanwhile, the condition of the wounded German soldier is getting worse. He is also paranoid by the British. But with time, both of the teams get trust on each other, start to get friendly and the distance between the captors and the prisoners keeps on getting smaller. But at one time, when they take woods from one of the columns of the cabin and the cabin starts to fall, the German leader was trying to hold the cabin and the British leader uses this opportunity to take the gun from him. From that moment, the Germans become the prisoners of the British. He starts to treat the Germans with respect equally of what he has received. But the Germans manage to retrieve their gun and again, make the British prisoners.

A Scene from the movie Into The White

But the weather (the snow storm) was not getting any better and finally both of the teams lose any interest over the guns. They start to live there in a friendly manner. Suddenly they discover a small stock of food and drinks under the cabin’s floor and start enjoying them. They get to know each other better over the drinks. But the wounded German soldier gets gangrene on his wounds. The only way to save him is to cut off his hand. Putting the guns aside, they do it together, but finally, fail to save his life. They bury him outside the cabin.

At last, in one fine day, the storm stops and the sun comes out. They all get ready to go outside and find the nearest way. Meanwhile, in a nearby Norwegian army camp, they send out scout teams to look for the wreckage of the crashed planes. One German and one British soldier goes out together to find ways down from this mountain and meets the Norwegian scout teams. Then the unexpected happens.

A Scene from the movie Into The White

My review about Into the White:

First of all, I liked Into the White very much. And according to my guess, everyone else will.

Although the plot of Into the White is set in World War 2 and is about two groups of conflicting soldiers, but Into the White is not, at all, a typical war movie with the fighting, the shootings and the killings, like the movie The Flowers of War. It tells the story of survival, cooperation, brotherhood and humanity.

The plot of Into the White is very good and innovative, although it will not seem that innovative when you know it is based on true events. But in a beautiful movie like this, I was expecting a happy ending, which didn’t happen. At the very end, Into the White gives you more facts from the real events after the end of this particular plot, which feels very interesting and will leave you wanting for more.

The director and the screenwriter have done a beautiful job here in Into the White. The location, the screenplay and the dialogues match perfectly with the plot. The psychology of the soldiers inside the cabin seemed very realistic. Another important point about Into the White is, even though it is a Hollywood movie, it does not portraits the Germans as ‘evils’, which I’ve found as a rare case. The effects of the storm and the set inside the cabin was very good.

The acting of all the characters felt natural and flawless. Although, I think, the best acting in Into the White was performed by the German leader, but the character of Rupert Grint was the most amusing of all. Even in a serious movie like this, the dialogues of his character will make you laugh. This famous kid actor has also done an awesome job of acting here as a soldier. But as I’ve said, the acting of all others in Into the White were also impressive. The dialogues are very well chosen and the makeups were good  too.

Into the White is completely safe to watch with kids.

After you’ve finished watching Into the White  you should look for the facts about it in wiki (the link is given below) which is obviously worthy a look.

We can also see some stunning scenic views in Into the White near the end of the movie.

So, overall, Into the White was a beautiful movie and I really enjoyed my time watching this one. I’ll definitely recommend Into the White to all movie lovers as a must see.

How did you like Into the White? Feel free to comment.

If you are looking for more info:

IMDB link: Into the White IMDB

Wikipedia Link: Into the White Wiki

To buy or rent this beautiful movie from Amazon, you can find the best deal on it here:  Into the White Movie

The Flowers of War Movie Review

The Flowers of War

                                                                  

The Flowers of War is a historical drama war film released in 2011. This movie is directed by Zhang Yimou and its plot is based on the novel “13 Flowers of Nanjing” by Chinese-American author Geling Yan. The major roles of The Flowers of War are played by Christian Bale, Ni Ni, Zhang Xinyi, Tong Dawei, Atsuro Watabe, Shigeo Kobayashi and Cao Kefan. The plot of this movie is set on Nanking, China during the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937.

The Flowers of War tells the story of survival of an American man, a group of schoolgirls and a group of prostitutes who are living together in a church. This is a beautiful story of how crisis brings people together and how humanity comes out of people when they are surrounded by brutality.  

Christian Bale and Ni Ni in a scene of The Flowers of War

Plot:

The Flowers of War starts with a war scene where a group of Chinese soldiers ambush a group of invading Japanese army who were chasing a group of schoolgirls. Although the Japanese army faces large damage at the beginning, but soon they bring strong reinforcements and crash the Chinese resistance, leaving only two survivors of the Chinese army. But in the meantime, the group of schoolgirls manage to reach a church where they were supposed to come for shelter. While going there, they meet an American mortician named John Miller who is also heading for the same church to bury the priest.  

After reaching there, John meets the caretaker of that church (a small boy) but can’t find the body of the priest. He still demands money as he has come all the way for his job. He doesn’t care much about helping others in a situation like this, instead he tries to get comfortable in living in that church as the priest. Soon a group of prostitutes come to that church seeking for shelter, claiming that the church’s another caretaker has taken bribe from them to give them shelter here. As soon as they arrive, they start to flirt with John. Later, they hide in the cellar of the church.

Now, the two survivors of the Chinese army from the previous fight come to that church. One of them is severely wounded. The other one carries him and leaves him at the prostitutes’ care. He then leaves the church and takes position in a nearby collapsed building. Inside the church, the schoolgirls and the prostitutes don’t get along much, but somehow manages to live. John is attracted to the leader of the prostitutes and tries to interest her in him. She offers John that she, with her team, will satisfy John if he can take them to the nearby safe camp.

But time doesn’t pass peacefully, a group of Japanese army attacks the church and after searching, finds the group of hiding schoolgirls. But a girl shows a noble gesture by not getting into the cellar when she was being chased, thus helping the prostitutes stay hidden in the cellar.  Some members of the army get brutal and try to rape the girls. John tries to stop them and fails. Then the lone survivor of that Chinese army shoots some of the Japanese army which gives away his hiding position. The Japanese soldiers leave the girls and go looking for him. He alone kills a good number of Japanese soldiers and finally gets killed.

Then a Japanese high ranked officer comes to the church with his team. The schoolgirls sing for him. Seeing everything, the officer gives them his words for their safety and also appoints some soldiers around the church for the safety of everyone living there. With the officer, there is a Chinese man who’s daughter is there among the schoolgirls. He is helping the Japanese only to find safety for his family. At a chance which came later on, John asks him for some parts for the damaged truck of the church, so that he could take everyone to safe camp. He says he’ll try his best to help.

One day, John finds two of the prostitutes missing. They went to their previous home, one to bring her earrings and another to bring strings for her musical instruments with which, she wants to play to the wounded soldier.  John rushes to search for them with the caretaker of the church knowing they will not survive for long in this warzone. He finally finds them, one killed and another brutally raped before being killed. John then comes back to the church.

Few days later, the Japanese officer visits the church again and gives John a written order that the schoolgirls and a prostitute (who has accidentally got in the schoolgirls’ team) will have to sing at a victory celebration of the Japanese army. Fearing the worst, John doesn’t agree to send the girls. But the officer warns him that it is an order from higher officers and they may use force to carry on this order.

Everybody at the church can guess what is there in the girls’ fate. At the party, they will be brutally raped and even may get killed. Nobody wants the girls to go to that party. But John has no ways to say no. So, to avoid this horrific fate, later on that night, all the schoolgirls together try to commit suicide by jumping off the bell tower of the church. John and the prostitutes try to stop them and then the leader of the prostitutes says that they will go to that party instead of the girls.

The last part of this movie is about their attempt to save the schoolgirls and the fate of John, the caretaker, the schoolgirls and the prostitutes. Can they deceive the eyes of the Japanese army? Can they be saved? You have to watch the movie to know the answers.

My review about The Flowers of War:

First of all, I felt that The Flowers of War is a beautiful piece of work.

The plot was beautiful and touchy. Like other great war movies, The Flowers of War will make you hate a war and will make you worried about the innocent lives of a warzone. This movie has showed what a dreadful fate waits for some people who are not involved with the war in any way. The Flowers of War also shows some extraordinary examples of some good people in wartime. The direction and screenplay of this movie seemed excellent. 

The acting and dialogues are good in The Flowers of War. There is no question about the acting of Christian Bale and he has done a perfect job. The acting of all other characters, specially the schoolgirls’ and the prostitutes’ seemed fluent and natural. The dialogs were also good according to the movie’s plot. Same goes for makeup. The plot of The Flowers of War needed some glamour for the prostitutes (specially their leader) even in these situations and the director has matched them pretty well.

There are some war scenes in The Flowers of War which fitted with the movie’s subject nicely and seemed realistic. These scenes includes some killings, dead bodies and some rape scenes which were needed to express the shocking violence of a war and the director has shown them nicely without going too extreme. There is no direct nudity in The Flowers of War.

The special effects and music of The Flowers of War are also goods. I couldn’t catch any flaws in any scene or in the plot.

So, finally, I really liked The Flowers of War. To the fans of war movies, I’ll recommend this movie as a must see. If you are a fan of all other kinds of movies, for you also, The Flowers of War is a must see. 

For those who are interested: 

IMDB Link : The Flowers of War IMDB

Wikipedia link : The Flowers of War Wiki

To buy or rent this movie from Amazon, or to watch online, get the best deal here:  The Flowers of War Movie