rise of the empire

watched rise of the empire last night with bee. as expected, it was superbly gory. lots of blood splashing, heads detached from the bodies, still with blood dripping from the neck, stabling, slashing, etc. and being a person who dislike gore, i invariably found myself closing my eyes whenever there was close combat throughout the show. other than that, the story itself was not too bad. also, it was interesting how the story was scripted such that it occurred at the same time the story in the movie 300 unfolded. there were even attempts to weave in one or two scenes from 300! thought it was nicely done. and similar to 300, the production was created in the same dark dreamy feel. at times, it was kinda distracting, but then again, such an effect seemed appropriate given the dark and gloom that was featured constantly throughout the show.

i have read many reviews about the show before watching it. and many mentioned about the one thing that stood out - beefcake galore. yes, there were lots and lots of half-naked men in every scene. and all the men seemed to have that broad shoulders, superbly developed deltoids, rock hard chest, oh-my-god abs and big bulges. totally unrealistic if you ask me. and with this overdosage of testosterone, any possibility of eroticism quickly dissipated after the first two scenes. not surprisingly, there were a few scenes of bouncing (woman's) breasts as well as scenes of violent sex. for the latter, one was that of men raping woman and another featuring both the male and female lead engaging in an almost s&m-like sex. so, viewers were treated to scenes of woman-on-top, man-on-top, strangling, ripping of clothes, thrusting, and so on. but i must say, the sex scenes were graphic but totally not erotic (at least not to me) given the tensions of enmity between the two persons and the real possibility of the man being killed on the spot.

:-)