300: Rise of an Empire (2014)

This is not the story of what comes before or after the battle of Thermopylae as told in 300, Zach Snyder’s 2006 steroidal blockbuster based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel and starring Gerard Butler as the vastly outnumbered Spartan king Leonidas. Instead, it is an ambitious expansion, which opens wide its cavernous maw and swallows its originator whole. Read the full review at KCAcive.com.