300: Rise of an Empire: The Art of the Film (Book Review)

The original 300 film released back in 2007, and it quickly became an all-time classic movie known for its great speeches, such as one about "madness" early on in the film, but it was also known for its fantastic aesthetic approach to the film, its characters and world. Now, 300: Rise of an Empire has exploded into theaters with an all new storyline and the same great artistic design that made the original film so iconic. 300: Rise of an Empire: The Art of the Film is a new release from Titan Books that allows fans to learn even more about the new movie and how director Noam Murro and writers Zack Snyder and Bernie Goldmann helped to create the memorable battles at sea in the newly released film.


300: Rise of an Empire sees the return of many characters from the original including the Persian leader Xerxes, but the battles in the film will take the Greeks to war at sea, as the armies led by general Themistokles clash against Xerxes' armada. 300: Rise of an Empire sees the return of fantastic artistic design that makes parts of the film look like a comic or graphic novel brought to life, while others seem to be all their own inspiration and are pretty amazing to see in theaters. With 300: Rise of an Empire: The Art of the Film, fans get a chance to take nice long looks at the artwork in the film while getting some behind the scenes information to learn how the scenes were developed and all of the hard work that went into the creation of the film.

300: Rise of an Empire: The Art of the Film features 160 pages of content from concept art and production stills to fully rendered scenes captured from the film and promotional art work. No matter what movie goers think of the film series, no one can deny that 300: Rise of an Empire doesn't have a great style that is all its own, and looking through the pages of 300: Rise of an Empire: The Art of the Film allows readers to relive some of the greatest scenes from the movie again and again. Perhaps the coolest part of the book is commentary from screenwriters Zack Snyder and Bernie Goldmann as they discuss their original vision for the project and how director Noam Murro brought the scenes to life in the film. This bonus commentary is easily comparable to bonus features the film's Blu-ray will most likely contain, only fans can read it all now instead of waiting several month's for the film's release.

300: Rise of an Empire: The Art of the Film is a hardcover book that already features two of the most iconic images from the new film for the front and back covers of the book. Reading through 300: Rise of an Empire: The Art of the Film is a joy with high quality paper and images that almost light up the room with each turn of a page. Fans will also appreciate the attention to detail in the book to help recreate the scenes for some of the artwork, even if readers haven't seen the film yet. Fans should hesitate to pick up a copy of 300: Rise of an Empire: The Art of the Film, just like they should rush out to theaters and see 300: Rise of an Empire to learn more about what it really means to be a Spartan warrior.


300: Rise of an Empire: The Art of the Film is now available from most major retailers from Titan Books and can be purchased for $34.95. For more information on 300: Rise of an Empire: The Art of the Film, check out the official Titan Books website.

Book Features:

• Publisher: Titan Books
• Author: Peter Aperlo
• Release Date: February 4, 2014
• Hardcover
• 160 Pages

Score: 9 out of 10