You may think this is a 300 opportunist no thanks to its trailer, but director Tarsem Singh had a lot more visual tricks up his sleeves. Immortals takes on Greek mythology in a different fashion under his vision, with strikingly younger looking Olympus gods having to undertake a non-interference code of conduct by Zeus (Luke Evans) as the villainous humans led by King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) seeks out a magical bow and from then threaten to unleash hell on earth through freeing the Titans, one time Olympus gods themselves having lost the heavenly war and banished to eternal damnation on earth
It's typical swords, sandals and sorcery in Immortals, with the hero Theseus (Henry Cavill, the next Superman) prancing around shirtless to show off his ripped upper torso, going on a quest to obtain the magical bow himself, and ultimately finding courage and leadership abilities within him to lead the forces of good up against evil. But the highlight here are the action sequences, and Tarsem really brought about a level of gore and violence that will send even the most jaded action junkie blushing at the way these sequences got crafted and shot. The slow motion in which the Olympus gods fight will definitely be the talk of the town, slowed only to highlight the speed at which they dispatch opponents, and two key scenes stand out that made it worthwhile to sit through everything else.
But all these are done at the expense of a proper plot, which is a pity, sacrificed to get out of the way of the action, and there only to serve as glue and filler in between the gladiatorial styled battles that audiences are probably clamouring for in a film like this one. Whatever you know about Greek mythology will get thrown out of the window here given the re-imagining of roles, starting with the gods looking very much younger than the usual older persona that get put on screen, and the audacity to have just about anyone fall victim to mortality. That will keep proceedings fairly fresh rather than to have, say, Zeus conquering everything just because he can. But some will of course prefer such established rules to have stayed put.
You can read my review of Immortals at movieXclusive.com by clicking on the logo below.
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