REVIEWS - '300: Rise of an Empire' and 'Lone Survivor'

'300:  Rise of an Empire' (R) ***1/2
Based on the not-yet released graphic novel 'Xerxes', this prequel/sequel (that's also at times concurrent to) '300' follows Greek general Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton), who leads the charge against invading Persian forces led by mortal-turned-god Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and Artemisia (Eva Green), a vengeful commander of the Persian navy.  Xerxes' and Artemisia's backstories are also covered, as well as a little bit more of Sparta and Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) before and after the Persians battle the 300 Spartans.  Lots of stuff going on in this movie.

I'll get this out of the way real quick: there is a LOT of talking and exposition in this movie.  But despite a lot of talking, it never gets too bogged down with the dialogue.  Eva Green makes for a fun (and brutal) villain as Artemisia.  With the various backstories and shifts in time and perspective it sometimes gets confusing, but let's face it:  We're not here for a story.  We're here to watch highly stylized slow motion extremely bloody fight sequences.  And indeed those are AWESOME.  And it was even more AWESOME watching it in IMAX 3D.  If you liked the first '300' movie, you'll probably like this movie.  This isn't as good as the first movie, but it's predecessor this movie is still a lot of bloody fun.

TRAILERS
'The Amazing Spider-man 2' - Watching this trailer in 3D made it look like a video game.....
'Godzilla' - It's about time I finally got this trailer in front of a movie.  And it looks GREAT.
'Divergent' - Who knows, maybe I'll see this out of curiosity.  Heck, as far as recent young adult novel movie adaptations go, this will probably be better than 'Twilight'.
'Noah' - The Biblical story of Noah gets a fantasy epic treatment.  For some reason the arc looking like a rectangular box kinda bugs me.  Other than that, this could go one of two ways:  it could be really good, or it could be really bad.
'Captain America:  The Winter Soldier' - Is it just me or does The Winter Soldier look like a villain from 'G.I. Joe'?
'Transcendence' - this looks interesting.




'Lone Survivor' (R) **3/4
Marcus Luttrell (Mark Wahlberg) and his team (Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster) set out on a mission to capture or kill notorious Taliban leader Ahmad Shah in late June 2005 in a remote village in Afghanistan. Marcus and his team are left to fight for their lives as their mission becomes comprised.  Based on the nonfiction book by actual Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell and British journalist Patrick Robinson.  The latest from Peter Berg, the director of 'Battleship' (the less said about that movie the better), 'Friday Night Lights', 'Hancock', 'The Kingdom', 'The Rundown', and 'Very Bad Things'.  Considering the title of the movie and the fact that Mark Wahlberg is the only person on the poster, you can probably guess the ending...

The first 20 or so minutes of the movie I didn't like at all.  In introducing the world of the U.S. Navy SEALs and Marcus Luttrell and his team it all played off like a recruitment ad for the Navy SEALs.  If I wanted to watch a recruitment ad for the SEALs, I'd flip on TV or I'd watch a documentary on Netflix about the Navy SEALs.  Everything just feels flat and none of the performances really come off as genuine.  It isn't as heavy handed as 'Act of Valor' was, but that's a good thing.  But once the mission is compromised and the story fully kicks in, it completely switches gears and ends up being very good.  It becomes less and less a recruitment ad for the SEALs and more like an actual movie (which 'Act of Valor' tried to do...and failed.  They might be actual Navy SEALs in that movie but you know what they aren't?  Actors.).  Yes, you can tell how it's going to end, but that didn't take away from how suspenseful it got.  Even the performances were all starting to get better, with Ben Foster ('X-Men:  The Last Stand', 'The Mechanic' and the '3:10 to Yuma' remake) in particular stealing his scenes.

Overall do I recommend it?  Yes.  At least most of the movie. 

TRAILERS
'Draft Day' - this could be good.  Or it could be ridiculously boring. 
'Noah' - the same trailer I got in front of '300:  Rise of an Empire'.  Like I said above, it could be really good....or it could be bad. 
'Captain America:  The Winter Soldier' - a different trailer than the one in front of '300:  Rise of an Empire'.  I only thought the first 'Captain America' was ok, and this could be on par with it. 
'Divergent' - once again, the same trailer I got in front of '300:  Rise of an Empire'.  I don't think I can add anything else that I haven't already said about it.