Awesome / 300: Rise of an Empire

Small Athenian fleet: 1.
Huge Persian fleet: 0.

• In the opening, we see Thermistocles leading an army of Athenians to fight the Persians when they have just landed their troops on Greek soil at Marathon, weakened after travelling across the Aegean. How badass was he ten years ago? Well, he slaughtered a large number of Persians before taking a bow and arrow and loosening a single shot that killed Xerxes's father Darius.
• Thermistocles went alone to Sparta to appeal to the Spartans for help, both times talking to Queen Gorgo. He succeeds by the end of the film.
• Themistocles's strategies and tactics in the use of naval warfare are unrivaled, and the Persians are swiftly beaten in every battle in the film.
  • Special Mention goes to his strategy of forcing the Persian ships into a narrow bottleneck and deploying an army of Athenians to essentially massacre all the Persians trapped there, culminating in the death of the Persian General who lead the assault. Bonus points for Themistocles killing the Persian General personally.
  • The fact that said ancient world naval battles, especially the ramming one, are the most impressive and notable in cinema in about five decades. To wit, the last memorable ancient world naval battles in movies date back to Ben-Hur (1959) and Cleopatra (1963).
• Themistocles meeting Artemisia alone on neutral waters and returning alive, and basically doesn't even bat an eyelid when she threatened to destroy his outnumbered ships.
  • After Artemisia gives Themistocles a We Can Rule Together speech, he appears to give in to temptation and proceeds to have rough sex with her. When it's over, Themistocles looks her in the eyes and simply says "no." Artemisia is not pleased.
• Thermistocles basically refuses to kill Ephialtes and instead tells the traitor to carry a message to Xerxes that the Greeks will fight to the death.
• The Battle of Salamis.
  • Themistocles riding a horse in a naval battle. Across burning ships and killing many Persian soldiers along the way, many of them who are Artemisia's guards.
  • Themistocles then going through Artemisia's Praetorian Guard like hot knife through butter, special mention goes to the scene he impales one with his sword and fights three more in which he won against every single one of them, even though he was fighting all three at the same time.
  • Themistocles versus Artemisia, fighting her to a standstill and when they lock blades he coldly told her that he refused Artemisia's offer to surrender. Then he kills Artemisia by stabbing her in the stomach.
    • Themistocles fighting alongside Queen Gorgo and the Spartans at the ending.
• The whole scene of Artemisia's rise to power. Special mention goes to how she defeats her instructor in a sword fight and becoming Darius's top general by bringing him decapitated heads of his enemies.
• Artemisia killing off Xerxes' old supporters one by one in a variety of ways, which include drowning and slitting of throats.
• Artemisia identified the Athenian spy within the ranks of her soldiers by simply looking at their hands. The reason for this is that she has whipped almost everyone on her ship, and the Athenian spy did not have any lashes on his hands.
• Artemisia utilizing an oil-tanker equivalent to flood the sea with oil while sending her personal guard to suicide bomb the Athenian ships.
  • Her single handedly killing one of Themistocles's best warriors (and friend) with three arrows and one more to detonate the oil-flooded seawater which the Athenians were drowning in.
• Artemisia's guard of Immortals prove to be able to tear through anything less than Leonidas' hand picked guards. A handful of them slaughter an entire Greek ship. Artemisia herself was no pushover too. She killed many Athenian warriors too, and cut them down rather easily with her two swords.
• Xerxes giving a Rousing Speech to his Empire to start a war against the Greeks.
• Xerxes burning down Athens to dust and ashes while holding the decapitated head of King Leonidas. Bonus points for tossing it away later while he watches.
• Xerxes again, when he witnessed Artemisia's defeat and then walked back to his Persian army, which was huge and spread out like a sea of troops behind him at the end of the film.
• The second Persian general. While he did get lured into narrow cliffs, his final stand with two of his guards against dozens of Greeks is heroic.
• The Spartans' Big Damn Heroes scene near the ending when they joined in the naval battle with Queen Gorgo at the front wielding her husband's sword. We also get a very good slow-motion look at the Spartans killing Persians when they boarded the Persian ships.
  • Another one for Queen Gorgo as well, considering her statement towards the Persian messenger in the first movie: "Only Spartan women give birth to real men." Her few seconds of combat stands testament to that.
  • To expand even more: the mere fact that Gorgo wields her husband's sword so magnificently. Taking into account the general differences in the musculature of men and women, the latter being generally more lithe and gracile, that means that she actually has a body as strong as her husband's, who was the ultimate Spartan soldier. Not a mean feat at all, and the perfect illustration of Leonidas's "clearly you don't know our women" from the first movie.
  • On top of all that, as the Spartans sail towards the Persian fleet, they announce their arrival with their distinct war-chant: "Ha-ooh! Ha-ooh! Ha-ooh!" And the other Greeks from the first movie are right there with them, back for revenge against Xerxes.
• The Spartan way of training, which appears to be beating up one guy in way that would disgust even hardcore MMA fans and seeing if he can beat up everyone else hitting him.
• "I'M NOT HERE TO BE A WITNESS!" Artemisia's line, followed by her and her guards slaughtering many Greeks.
• The Greek spy aboard Artemisia's ship. Not only does he taunt her, he kills about six men and successfully escapes.
• The fact that for all the mockery they got in the previous film, the Athenians get an entire movie showing how badass they can be. Very few of them are professional soldiers, and even Themistocles mourns the fact that he has to send so many people to their deaths, but they believe it's worth it. And for a nation that's not obsessed with becoming strong warriors, they consistently comport themselves very well on the battlefield.