This movie was neither a sequel, nor a prequel. In fact, the storyline starts before King Leonidas and his fearless 300 engage with the Persian army at the legendary battle of Thermopylae and ends well after their demise, which is why the movie is titled “300: Rise of an Empire.”

Because it is this battle, this awesome tale of bravery, that ends up uniting all of the Greek city-states against the massive Persian horde.

This movie, while it has a few exciting action scenes, openly spits in the face of its predecessor. It brings far too much grandiosity and mysticism to a story, which historically had neither.

In fact, without giving too much away, the creators even went so far as to classify the Persian King Xerxes as an actual god king.

Luckily, the blow of the bad acting and horrendous writing is softened by some very bloody action sequences. That being said, I think if the director of the original “300” (Zack Snyder) would have also directed this movie, the entire film would have been much better.

Unfortunately, instead of having this distinguished director finish what he started, it was up to a director who has one feature under his belt to follow an action-packed masterpiece.

Honestly, I do not know what is worse, the fact that the writing was so terrible, or the fact that they chose a laughably inexperienced director for this feature film.

What´s more, the director (Noam Murro) insisted on the fact that the lead role of Themistocles, be portrayed by Australian actor Sullivan Stapleton.

While he did what he could with the script he was given, he did not even come close to the performance carried out by Gerard Butler in the original film.

The majority of the scenes in the movie, aside from the gore filled parts, were extremely boring and left you wondering “When will the action start again?”

It is sad to say that the only truly memorable scene that I can think of in this entire movie is a sex scene. And before you label me as a pervert, let me explain.

Without giving too much away, the sex took place between two enemies and was filled with lust, anger, and just enough violence to make it interesting without giving it that rape vibe.

All in all, the movie was pretty terrible. If you want to go and enjoy some bloody action with zero cinematic worth, then be my guest. However, if you want to see an actual quality film, then I beg you to not see this movie.

It will only make you angry when you inevitably compare it to the first one.