Greek general Themistokles leads the charge against invading Persian forces led by mortal-turned-god Xerxes and Artemisia, vengeful commander of the Persian navy.
If you loved the gloriously and gratuitously blood-spattered visual style of Zack Snyder's epic 300, you'll probably enjoy the hell out of 300: Rise of an Empire, which manages to be something of a prequel, a sequel and a parallel story all at once. The performances, especially Eva Green as the warrior Artemisia, are uniformly good, but this epic is foremost a triumph of design and CGI. - Three and a half stars
