Despite the fact that the 300 sequel 300: Battle of Artemisia will be something of a prequel that tells the story of how Xerxes rose to power as a God King, it seems like we’re going to get a chance to catch a glimpse of old favorites King Leonidas and Queen Gorgo in the movie anyway. While talking to Movies.com, 300 producer Bernie Goldmann told them that this time around, “it’s a different story, however there’s a small part for Lena [Headey]. There’s a small part for Gerry [Butler].” There’s a bit of a risk you take in these sorts of situations of doing small cameos for famous characters, as sometimes it can look pandering and take the viewer out of the movie (think of all the times when characters from the original trilogy awkwardly got their name announced as they turned to the camera in the Star Wars prequels), so hopefully 300: Battle of Artemisia is able to bring back Lena Headey and Gerard Butler in an organic way.

Around the year 480 BC, an historical battle between a group of Greek city-states and a bullying Persian army began in a mountain pass of Thermopylae (literally translated to “Hot Gateway”). This epic war saw the Greeks vastly outnumbered by the self-appointed god-king Xerxes, who had spent years overthrowing other city-states to build up his human reserve. See, Xerxes is a classy king. He likes to send messengers to each threatening city-state, offering to spare the citizens in exchange for the allegiance to him. Well, when his trusty foot soldier ventured into Sparta, a town known for their militaristic nature and tough, no-bull-shit attitude, their refusal to join up with Xerxes was never heard. Spartan King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) all but told the offending Persians to fuck off and kicked them into a deep hole. Just like Helena before him, this kick ignited the fury of both the Greeks and Persians. Leonidas organizes 300 of Sparta’s best men to fight off Xerxes’ army, each man wanting the glory of dying in battle to defend their great city. While they’re out getting all hot and sweaty in just tiny pairs of war shorts, Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) remains in Sparta trying to drum up support of the Spartan council to ready troops for war only to prove just how fierce Spartan women are when she’s threatened, assaulted, and almost killed by Theron (Dominic West), a senator more interested in power than glory. Two stories diverge in the course of Zach Snyder’s [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

The newest original series from HBO is a dense tapestry of people and places. It’s based on the first chapter of an epic fantasy series referred to as “The Song of Ice and Fire”, and the first episode alone introduces us to more characters than you can shake a stick at. Don’t let that deter you from putting in the work to follow the series though; HBO has pulled off stuff like this before. It took me three or four episodes of The Wire before I really knew who everyone was and what was going on, and that turned out to be the greatest television show ever produced. Seeing as this one was developed by the same people who gave us the epic, badass series Rome, I would say that Game of Thrones has a lofty task ahead of it, but a better than average chance at becoming a success; especially if it keeps up the quality of the first episode.

With yet another wonderful piece of casting news, HBO’s adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones continues to impress with the addition of Sarah Connor star Lena Heady as Queen Cersei Lannister.

The Coroner has temporarily left the building. Old Sawbones Fure took one look at the 8 Films To Die For in this year’s After Dark Horrorfest and flew into an immediate rage. So Rob Hunter is stepping in to help out.

Sarah is in jail, facing FBI prosecution. John and Cameron are holed up in a seedy motel, waiting for things to blow over.

John discovers that Savannah Weaver is a target of a Terminator. John Henry detects the threat and tries to lead Savannah to safety. When the Garbage Terminator learns her daughter has been kidnapped, she enlists the help of both John Henry and Agent Ellison to track her down.

In order to keep John safe, Sarah calls on an old friend – former boyfriend Charley Dixon – to keep him in a safe house. Meanwhile, John Henry finds himself in peril when an unknown entity sends a message through the security measures and possibly trips his original programming.

Jessie is still having trouble dealing with the aftermath of killing Riley. She’s weighted down with guilt as we flash back to her time on the S.S. Jimmy Carter with a story that explains why she doesn’t trust the machines.

Now that Riley is finally dead, the Connors are all playing right into the hands of the BSG Sexpot, thinking that it was Cameron who killed her. Meanwhile, the BSG Sexpot flashes back (or rather flashes forward to the future) about a critical submarine missions with special orders from John Connor.

Riley comes back to seek help from John and his family, but she finds that Cameron is increasingly suspicious of her motives. And that suspicion is well founded, considering that the BSG Sexpot is manipulating things behind the scenes.

Sarah is having trouble sleeping after killing the man at the warehouse. She checks into a sleep clinic to help her cope, but soon she fears that she is the center of an experiment by Skynet to map her brain.

Sarah and Company attend funeral services for the families who had loved ones that died in the mysterious warehouse explosion. John follows the lead of a father who has disappeared after the explosion while Sarah befriends the widow of the man she killed.

Sarah finds herself in the hospital with a gunshot wound from her shoot-out at the Skynet warehouse. She escapes the hospital and kidnaps a doctor to help take the bullet out, all the time hallucinating a visit with Kyle Reese. The retrofitted Terminator John Henry is learning about himself and the operation while the Garbage Terminator takes matters into her own hands… literally.

Get excited for a totally pimped out slasher getting ready to cut his way onto DVD from Anchor Bay Home Entertainment.

Sarah is continuing her research on the three dot symbol that has been haunting her visions. This leads her to a UFO convention and a conspiracy theorist in hiding who might have a connection to the manufacturing of the Machines.

Sarah and Cameron head out to the woods to save a family that has been targeted by the machines for termination, and the easy part of the rescue is convincing them that there are cyborgs from the future trying to kill them.

On a generally slow night in the Connor family, Cameron (Summer Glau) heads off to the library to conduct some after-hours research. There, she discovers a picture from the 1920s that has a Terminator in it.

Sarah and Cameron are hot on the track of the people they believe have The Turk. Meanwhile, John is still pining over Riley, who receives a visitor that explains some secrets. And Agent Ellison works with the Garbage Terminator to interview a growing artificial intelligence.

It’s no surprise to anyone reading this that I have been awfully critical of this show in season two. However, once we got past the nightmare elements, this episode shaped up rather nicely.