The wheel doesn’t need reinventing, of course, and nearly a decade after the first 300 film, the follow-up takes that advice. Although the story has some novelty to it (kind of a sequel, kind of a contemporary of the original), the nuts and bolts of it are unchanged. It’s a green-screen epic, with action sequences largely indistinguishable from its predecessor. The one real strength 300: Rise of an Empire can offer is Eva Green as the sinister Artemisia, a legendary Persian naval commander from a couple of thousand years ago. She’s also a villain you wouldn’t mind winning a little bit, because she’s every bit a badass. Made purely for fans of the first film, Rise of an Empire doesn’t break any new ground and adds only a sliver in terms of the story. But by and large, that’s passable.