re: Saw "300: Rise" last night

Saw it yesterday. I was impressed. Its pretty well spot-on covered in others reviews here.

That sex scene was well done, for sure.

I would assume there will be a third so you can see the king (or Paolo as I call him) killed.

I agree, I didn't like how the second one deviated in ways that seemed needless. It's an interesting enough story as it is.

The 1st one deviated also, the biggest deviation being that there were a lot more solders from other Greek states besides the Arcadians that joined the Spartans. There were anywhere from 5000+ to 7000+ Greek solders at the battle from over 10 different states. There were other deviations like the Ephors were not leprosy-ridden priests (but actually elected officials/leaders that held office for only 1 term), and the fact that the Spartans had already decided to commit its full force, which has to wait until the festival of Carneia ended (so they were there to basically delay the Persians).

might go tonight

I was reading that the Indian armies had 100 elephants. pretty badass. Romans vs Persians

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The 1st one deviated also, the biggest deviation being that there were a lot more solders from other Greek states besides the Arcadians that joined the Spartans. There were anywhere from 5000+ to 7000+ Greek solders at the battle from over 10 different states. There were other deviations like the Ephors were not leprosy-ridden priests (but actually elected officials/leaders that held office for only 1 term), and the fact that the Spartans had already decided to commit its full force, which has to wait until the festival of Carneia ended (so they were there to basically delay the Persians).

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Agree that it wasn't a documentary, but it didn't completely change the story of numerous characters.

For instance, Artemesia goes from in history being the queen of a powerful allied state of Persia and a personal ally of Xerxes to a formerly enslaved Greek orphan, adopted and trained by Darius and a servant to Xerxes. She also commands the entire Persian navy in the movie, rather than reality where she had 5 or 6 ships and used the primary tactic of running away and pretending to be Greek when threatened.


The Ephors being ugly instead of politicians doesn't really compare. And while the contributions of other nations at Thermopylae are massively downplayed, they are acknowledged with the Arcadians taking part in the battle on day 2 and the retreat being led by the Arcadians but including numerous others in various uniforms after Ephealtes betrays the Greeks.

As far as only the Spartans and Arcadians being truly represented in the movie--they did make up half of the allied force at Thermopylae and the two largest contingents--it would confuse the viewer to include a half dozen other smaller contributors.

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Darius

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Maybe a minor issue but they were pronouncing his name "dare E us", while I've always heard it pronounced as "dar EYE us" by professors and historians.

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The Ephors being ugly instead of politicians doesn't really compare.

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Considering the movie made them out to be the priests that went to the Oracle at Delphi, and who were bribed by the Persians to tell Leonidas the vision they wanted, seems like a big deviation.

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As far as only the Spartans and Arcadians being truly represented in the movie--they did make up half of the allied force at Thermopylae and the two largest contingents--it would confuse the viewer to include a half dozen other smaller contributors.

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The Spartans (300) and Arcadians (around 1120) only made up somewhere around 1400 out of the 5200 to 6100 solders that Herodotus implies was there. Even if you include the 900 or so non-Spartan or non-citizen Lacedaemonians (which the movie didn't even mention), the number is still well under half of the Greek force. I can't remember if the movie even mentioned the 1000 or so Phocians that were positioned on the path to guard against the Persians out-flanking them once Leonidas found out about it.

But on top of those two things, one of the major plots of the movie was that the council was still debating whether or not to commit their full army to the war with the Persian while the Battle of Thermopylae was being waged, and that the Persians were bribing council men (well at least Theron). That was a big deviation from history in context with the movie. Historically that decision had already been made before the 300 even left out. They were just waiting for the festival of Carneia to finish because it would've been sacrilegious for them to fight during that time. But the Ephors decided the urgency was great enough to justify an advance expedition to block the pass until the festival was over. Heck, the strategy to block the pass at Thermopylae wasn't even a Spartan plan. It was part of Themistocles' plan for the Spartans (and the other allied Greek) to hold that pass, while the Athenians (and the other allied Greeks) held the straits of Artemisium as a coordinated effort.

I think there were some major movie plot points in that first movie that didn't line up anywhere near history. But you are right in that the second deviated a heck of a lot, and probably a lot more, than the first. But the first deviated a lot itself.

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If they kill him at the end of a third one, that will ruin the whole trilogy for me. I thought the first one was pretty true to Herodotus' writings on Thermopylae, and even worked in some of the direct quotes (come and take them, we'll fight in the shade)--the second one clearly deviated a lot. If they kill Xerxes at Plataea, it will ruin the trilogy for me.

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also Xeres would have conquered Greece had he not went back with the bulk of his Army to stop the Babylonian uprising.

Good flick. Wish there was more Xeres. The architecture of the Persian ships was awesome. Loved the scene where Xeres walks thru his chambers and looks down at his people.