300: Rise of an Empire

300: Rise of an Empire (surely they missed a trick by not calling it 302) tries so desperately hard to top the original.

Dials are set firmly to 11 so expect more severed heads and waves of blood than you can shake the proverbial stick at.

The idea of a 'side-sequel' is a great one, we start with Xerxes' story, cross over with King Leonidas' 300 and move past that to events after that legendary battle.

However the ending of the original film is completely forgotten in lieu of focussing this film on the Athenians end of the fighting rather than the Spartans.

As such Gerard Butler doesn't reappear (which is a shame considering there's a few golden moments where he could have made a cameo).

The film just lacks the character and originality of the first, sure the fight scenes are awesome (although if you're looking for realistic naval combat then look away) but there's no heart just plenty of cheesy speeches (it really does feel like every single line of the film is screamed).

Eva Green is a perfect villainess and the rounding off of Xerxes' history is nice but it does rather feel like a giant trailer for what will inevitably be a 303.

Every other shot is slow motion and the already pretty stylised first film is taken to extremes here.

However there are some beautiful 3D moments (the camera moving over Xerxes to survey his giant army below is worth the IMAX entry price alone).

This is a tough one to rate but it's not quite the original.

However, if you liked 300 you're certain to leave the cinema with a massive grin spread across your chops.

3 stars ***