Immortals review

Immortals is a classic Greek tale myth whose premise is not easy to summarise.

Having defeated the Titans, the Gods are king. But when the villainous Hyperion declares war on humanity, he goes in search of the powerful weapon, the Epirus Bow, to set the Titans free. Unable to meddle in a human’s actions, the Gods rely on Theseus, a mere peasant, to save them from this plight.

Imagine how unnecessarily convoluted the actual script is…

It is basically another of the recent tiring genre of music video extended to feature length with slow motion graphics and extensive special effects. It follows in the wake of 300, Clash of the Titans, Thor, The Eagle, Conan the Barbarian etc, etc, and was produced primarily as a cash cow to hopefully bait young males into parting their cash once again.

Tarsem Singh has a background in music video direction and is more known for his visual style than anything else. From this information we are not surprised that Singh can’t tell a story, and it is here that the film falls flat.

Focused on the visuals — Singh called it Renaissance style meets Fight Club — Singh manages to create some interesting visuals in the sword-wielding battle sequences and expansive landscapes, and all in a (completely unnecessary) 3D form.

Mickey Rourke is the biggest name on the cast list and my guess he was banking on 300-like success, since it’s really not where he should be putting his efforts.

John Hurt plays the old man (fittingly) who trains young Theseus. I know what you’re thinking; it’s not usually the feature we would expect to see the gruff-voiced English veteran. Many Shakespearean roles, The Elephant Man, and recently Melancholia and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. But if you look closely, he’s been a part of the Harry Potter, Indiana Jones and Lord of the Rings franchises too. Maybe we only remember the respectable choices of the seemingly austere actors.

Stephen Dorff also appears, and this is the kind of affair that he calls his bread and butter; B movie that hopes it’ll be regarded as A movie.

Overall, well, you get what you pay for. No surprises here. Caveat Emptor. You can rent the film from Cinema Paradiso.