“300: Rise of the Empire” is less of a sequel and more of an expansion of the first film. Not for the faint of heart, the movie is jampacked with action and adventure, fitting comfortably into its genera. Audiences should not confuse this movie to be innocent, “300: Rise of the Empire” rightly earned its R rating due to many graphic scenes.

The film focuses on Themistokles, (Sullivan Stapleton) leading the united forces of Greece to fight the Persians at sea while King Leonidas and his brave 300 Spartans are being defeated at the Red Gates in the first movie. The sequel continues the story of the 300 Spartans that laid down their life to defend Greece against Xerxes, the Persian king (Rodrigo Santoro), and his enormous army. With Sparta’s king now dead, Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) is left to rule Sparta, while Greek general, Themistokles, rallies all the countries of Greece together to rise up against the intimidating Persians.

With Xerxes still in pursuit to avenge his fathers death by Themistokles, “Rise of the Empire” shifts its spotlight to focus on the great battle between Themistokles and the Persians war commander, Artemisia (Eva Green). Artemisia is a murderous and skillful woman whose only motivation is revenge. Xerxes commands Artemisia to go to war against the Greeks in the Aegean Sea, making for an exhilarating film.

“300” is well known bloodfest, but the new director, Noam Murro, took gore to a new level. The gore came to life with Murro’s decision to use 3-D to make the blood spatter more thrilling. The movie excelled in war, but lacked substantial plotline, and unfortunately, the blood and gore didn’t do the movie justice and easily became boring and repetitive. As a whole the acting in the movie was very good, but Eva Green takes the cake. Played the part of Artemisia to a tee, she conveyed her menacing attitude perfectly. Sullivan Stapleton also had a great performance in this movie, playing the part of a leader very well, despite the unnecessary cheesy punchlines.

This movie based on Frank Miller‘s latest graphic novel “Xerxes,” was entertaining but needed more of a storyline. The movie was left off in a way that would lead perfectly into a third movie, so audiences shouldn’t be surprised if another “300” movie is in the works. “300: Rise of an Empire” is perfect for anyone looking for an action film that doesn’t mind seeing buff men with six packs fighting for 1 hour and 42 minutes. Individually this movie was decent, but it was a let down for a sequel.