300: Rise of an Empire - guts and gore galore

Almost a decade has passed since Zack Snyder's visually stunning gore-fest 300 wowed audiences with its bloodthirsty drama. Based on Frank Miller's graphic novel inspired by ancient Greek history, it was a ferociously macho retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae, in which King Leonidas (a buff Gerard Butler at his shouty best) and a handful of Spartans fought to the death against the big bald fella with a penchant for piercings and ornate jewellery, Persian god-king Xerxes.

For the epic sequel, (HBO, Saturday at 10pm), Snyder returns as an executive producer and co-writer but has handed the directing reins to Israeli Noam Murro ( Smart People). Seeing as literally everyone dies in the original movie, this is less a sequel and more a companion piece, running on a concurrent timeline. While Leonidas is slashing and stabbing Persians elsewhere, the oiled-up Greek hero this time is Athenian general Themistocles, played by Australian beefcake Sullivan Stapleton (below; Underbelly), who leads another army of leather-skirted hunks into battle against the god-king.

This time the sneering Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro; Love Actually), now sporting a splendid golden codpiece to complement his flamboyant jewellery collection, has the help of fierce - not to mention lusty - warrior queen Artemisia, played by Eva Green ( Casino Royale). As the king of bling takes on more of a spectator role this time around, it's left to Artemisia to handle the gratuitous sex and violence, and she has rocked up dressed to kill. While Stapleton struggles admirably to fill Butler's sandals, Green steals the show. Ruthless and enticing, she is an irresistible villain, slaying her enemies and making out with their decapitated heads.

Visually, it's cut from the same cloth as the original, Murro matching Snyder blow for bloody blow. With the stylised cartoon violence shown in super slo-mo detail at the most extreme of limb-flinging times, you can practically taste the ribbons of blood as they arc through the sky.

This is not for the easily offended.