Immortals (2011)

Movie Info

I shoot an arrow into the air…

King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) has decided to bring war to the gods.  With Phaedra (Frieda Pinto), he seeks out the Epirus Bow as a means to free the Titans and bring down the gods.  When Hyperion’s soldiers slay the mother of Theseus (Henry Cavill), Theseus seeks revenge and that means finding Epirus Bow first.  Now Theseus is teamed with Phaedra and a thief named Stavros (Stephen Dorff) to stop Hyperion.  In a world where no one believes in Zeus (Luke Evans) and the gods, will they even be able to help Theseus and his allies?

Dude, your breath is awful!

Directed by Tarsem Singh, Immortals was made by the producers of 300.  The movie blended high action and special effects and was released in 3D and 2D (on 11/11/11 which it touted in promotions).  The movie fared well in the box office but was critically panned.

I enjoyed 300 (despite being pretty thin on plot and acting), but I was pretty leery of Immortals.  The film closely resembled the 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans (which so ho-hum), and I’m not a big fan of the director.

Hyperion is coming!

The movie unfortunately lived up to my expectations.  The garbled plot was just a mash-up of generic mythology, but lacked the fun of something like the original Clash of the Titans.  The story goes about the way you’d expect it to be and despite all the grand effects, it doesn’t remain very interesting.

The cast also doesn’t help to push this movie to the next level.  Henry Cavill is solid as Theseus but the movie needed more of a push due to the lackluster script.  Mickey Rourke who is generally fun to watch just seems to be rehashing he recent roles.  Freida Pinto remains great eye-candy but can’t bring anything extra to her role as the mystic seer.  I have never been a Brad Dorff fan and this film didn’t endear me anymore to him.  Luke Evans is fine as the underused Zeus, but I preferred him better in his “old man” form of John Hurt.

I can’t wait to see this sequel…or not

The visuals for the movie are impressive, and Tarsem does know how to make a film a spectacle.  I did not like The Cell (and somewhat like The Fall), but I did respect the visuals.  Unfortunately for this film, the visuals are nothing new and rather run of the mill in this type of movie.  300 had the shock of being new and different…Immortals just looked like an unfinished version.

Immortals is a rather dull and lifeless movie.  I love mythology, and I hate to see it pimped out by lazy Hollywood.  The stories of mythology are rich and could be spun into something interesting.  Immortals just doesn’t reach that level promised by the title.  The ending of the film also implies a sequel, but as of yet, no sequel has emerged.

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