13 Movies You Really Wanted To Hate (But Actually Couldn’t)
6. 300: Rise Of An Empire
300 was based on the comic by Frank Miller, and turned into a blood-soaked, gloriously homoerotic action movie by Zack Snyder. Gerard Butler’s shouty performance turned him into an A-lister overnight, and while it was all about style over substance, there’s no denying how awesome the style was.
Why You Wanted To Hate It: The sequel Rise Of An Empire lacked Snyder and Butler, which was already a red flag. It also lacked the simplistic hook of the original, the trailers made it look like a warmed over copy and none of the new cast had the charisma of Butler’s Leonidas.
The Reasons You Couldn’t: Against all the odds, Rise Of An Empire was actually really good. The new director copied Snyder’s style so perfectly you could barely tell the difference; the action was extremely well shot and Eva Green made for a fantastic villain. It so easily could have been a phoned-in effort, but this belated sequel was a worthy follow-up.