300: Earth and Water

Really fantastic edit by Aztek, been waiting for this one a while and it does not disappoint. Cutting together the two films is a bold venture but it works perfectly here. The narrative flows well and the action is just great from wall to wall. All the slow bits from 300 are gone and the weaker parts from the sequel have been similarly excised. I think this a must-watch for all 300 fans.

Audio visually splendid, with a lot of care apparent in the grading. Highest recommendations!
Amazing work my friend

Kris

Wow. I'm really impressed with this edit. Mashing both the 300 movies together and cutting away the fat was always going to be gold, but nothing could prepare me for how emotionally engrossing a 2+ hour movie that's wall to wall combat could be. The finer points of both flicks are excised but I didn't miss any of it at all, I was fully entrenched in the story of the war being fought on two fronts, expertly intercut by the editor so you always knew exactly who you were following. I enjoyed this a lot. The only possible way I could see to improve it would be to somehow include a few more scenes with Eva Green unteathered breasts, but even without that this is still an edit that I'll be returning to again and again. It's an epic in every sense of the word.

Fantastic edit. Aztek463 has pumped up the epic into the original 300. The original 300 was more intimate than its sequel. By combining 300 with 300 Rise of the Empire, Aztek463 has given the story a 3 ACT structure that not only gives the original story more context but adds more spectacle, more violence more sex and more depth. Flawless integration of the 2 films. This is the must go version of these 2 films. This edit should also win the award of the best film edit of this month. Kudos to Aztek463!

Being a huge fan of the testosterone driven 300, I was not-so-very-but-still-a-bit anxious to see its pre-/se-/interquel 300: Rise of an Empire.

I should have known... Bar a handful of exceptions, Hollywood no longer has the creativity to handle sequels like it once had. There are no Empire Strikes Backs, The Godfather Part II's or other similar masterpieces in this decade's films. Bar a handful of exceptions. Rise of an Empire is not an exception. Trying to gap the bridge between to films when you have almost no one of the original cast to your disposal is one of the most ludicrous, impossible things one could try. I applaud their efforts, but it still feels as if they failed.

Aztec tried to bridge the two in a two-hour-ish epic. He succeeded partially, but his efforts are highly recommended viewing. If his edit lacks in execution, it is only because of the source material.

AUDIO:
Everything flowed nicely and I didn't notice any hiccups, save one. When Captain Astemis' eldest son, Artemis, is decapitated, the sound drops considerably in a matter of seconds. It made it clear something was missing. This flaw, if you will, is also the one moment where Aztec's skills are best evident. Up until that point I had COMPLETELY forgotten that Dillios' had been narrating the whole thing in the original feature! Aztec did a fantastic job at keeping the plot going, not having missed a beat where Dillios would try to fill the gap with storytelling.

VIDEO:
Added grain (and other effects?) did a commendable job in bringing the slightly visual styles of both films closer together.

STORY:
The parts that were left out were never missed. Every time someone was mentioned, the next scene cut to that person. A great example was where Themistocles visited Gorgo while Leonidas was out. To show Leonidas was withheld elsewhere, Aztec then cut to Leonidas visiting the Oracle. Great craftsmanship, and it really made it feel as if the stories were interflowing, rather than making up for the original cast not having returned (as was the case). It was disappointing to see the arrogant Xerxes of the original 300 be reduced to the puppet he was in 300 RoaE. He was controlled, told what to say and do, and only seldom did he show a spark of arrogance, which was then in contrast to his puppet-like nature, that in turn did not help making his character believable. If both stories truly played back-to-back, he should have been arrogant from the start. in 300 RoaE he swayed back and forth, while Artemisia proved the real villain. Again a fault of the source material, which Aztec tried his best fixing.

Despite Aztec's great efforts, 300 Rise of an Empire is still an underwhelming sequel compared to its grand predecessor 300. It was everything I'd been looking for in an action film for quite some time. Aztec's fanedit strips the sequel of its shortcomings and ties it into the original film to bring a better storytelling experience of the brave Spartans than the original sequel ever could.

Comes highly recommended for fans of 300 and those who like the sequel but prefer the original.
*NOTE: Gave an 8 for enjoyment. Was looking for 7.5 but 7 does not do it justice.
8 for narrative because of the inferior 300 RoaE storyline.

Turning the 2 films into a single chronological narrative works wonders, particularly in increasing the quality of the sequel’s narrative. For me, this turned the sequel into an almost as interesting story as 300 was, and that’s an achievement in itself.

The editing is top-notch here. The transitions from one film to the other were perfect, couldn’t find a difference between the original cuts and the (many) new ones.

At 17m12, there’s something weird happening with the framerate, just for a few seconds, the video seems jittery. I’ve checked, this is not present in the original.