The film follows Athenian general Themistocles (Sullivan Stapleton), who, during the first invasion of Greece by the Persian’s, shot an arrow at King Darius I (Yigal Naor) — Xerxes’ father — killing him.

In an attempt to avenge Darius’ death, his former Greek mentor, Artemisia (Eva Greene), convinces the naïve Prince Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) that he must become god-like and avenge his father’s death by going to war with Greece. This is how Xerxes came to be the giant, deep-voiced Persian with the piercings, gold skin and god-like persona.

Ten years later, Xerxes goes to war with Greece with his massive army. While he is engaging in battle with King Leonidas and the rest of the Spartan army, which is shown in the first movie, Artemisia battles Themistocles and the Greek navy at sea.

Artemisia forms a Persian navy that is much larger than the Greeks’ to battle Themistocles. Given the great size advantage, Themistocles must rely on cunning battle tactics to defeat Artemisia and her navy.

Artemisia was the most compelling character. The movie reveals that her family was brutally raped and murdered by her fellow Greeks, and then she was used as a sex slave for them. I couldn’t help but feel terrible for her — even though she was the antagonist.

It was also refreshing to see a strong female lead character in this movie, but aside from Artemisia, the other characters weren’t well defined, which was disappointing. We also didn’t see too much of Xerxes, which was disappointing because he was brilliant in the first film, but he was off battling with the Spartans.

There were also a few themes recycled from the original. The one that annoyed me most was the whole Greek father-and-son duo in which the son had to earn the respect of his father.

Aside from these minor letdowns, this movie was awesome. I watched it in IMAX: 3D in the Twin Cities, which was beyond incredible as this was a great movie for 3D. I give “300: Rise of an Empire” five out of five stars. It was equipped with slow-motion battle scenes, tons of gore and the visual aesthetics that were ever-present in the original. The second installment also didn’t have the magic and freak-show characters that were part of the Persian army that made the first movie seem unrealistic.

The battles scenes took place at sea made this movie far more intense than the original and the end of the movie  left ample room for a sequel. I just hope it doesn’t take eight more years.

Adele Kieger is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected].