Review: Immortals

As of late the films involving Greek mythology have not been up to par. This film is directed by Tarsem Singh who is famous for his work on "The Cell." Singh choose to use a Renaissance time period of art in this film that infused a bit of artistic flare into it. For the most part it worked, but also at times it made some of the costumes look a bit ridiculous. In fact, due to Singh's attempt to make it a visionary project it works on some levels, but fails on so many more levels. In a variety of ways the film is similar to 300, but attempts to be more. Granted, it is still an entertaining movie due to the action sequences and special effects but outside of that there isn't much more to it.

The plot revolves around Theseus (Henry Cavill), a mortal man who Zeus (Luke Evans) believes can lead a fight against King Hyperion and his ruthless army. King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) is on a rampage which his massive army laying waste to everything that is in his path to finding the legendary Epirus Bow, the key to opening the caged Titans. The Titans are the only things that can kill the Gods, who Hyperion feels that when he prayed for them to save his wife and child from disease they had forsaken him. While a oracle named Phaedra (Freida Pinto) has a vision of Theseus and believes him to be the only one that can be their saving grace against Hyperion. However, Theseus is the reluctant hero and is only pushed into it when Hyperion and his men invade Theseus' town. Theseus witnesses Hyperion killing his mother and vows to exact his revenge on the King. Theseus shows great fighting skills which impresses Hyperion, but ultimately is taken as a slave.

In captivity, Theseus manages to escape with Phaedra and Stavros (Stephen Dorff) and decides to pursue Hyperion. Hyperion sends his forces after Theseus. The old man (John Hurt) that had trained Theseus since he was a boy in the art of fighting, and how to be a man, is revealed to actually be Zeus. Zeus is shown to be on the top of Mount Olympus with the other gods, Athena (Isabel Lucas), Poseidon (Kellan Lutz) and others. Zeus explains to them that even though Hyperion looks to free the Titans, that they under no circumstance can directly interfere. It is of a mortal matter which Gods do not interject, and if any God were to, they would suffer his wrath. Theseus struggles with the burden from this point as he is forced to take down an army much greater then anything humanity has ever since. While, he doesn't even have an army of his own, he is just one man.

It is an entertaining film, it does have some nice action sequences, but it does not have much substance at all. It falls under the line of a light hearted popcorn flick that allows you to sit back and turn off your brain and mindlessly watch people getting impaled, slashed, and much worse. Just ask Lysander (Joseph Morgan) the coward that jumped ship to Hyperion's army who may have got the worst amount of pain imaginable. In fact, thinking about it still makes me cringe. Henry Cavill does not have much to work with in terms of his role, but does excel in his action sequences which may lead some to welcome him in his upcoming role as the Man of Steel. Mickey Rourke of course excels in his role as Hyperion, the ruthless ruler. The Gods costumes, were just silly. Poseidon's helmet was particularly ridiculous which in fact made me unable of taking him seriously. The other Gods wore almost nothing making me think that they were all auditioning for the next Calvin Klein advertisement instead of actually being this all powerful Gods. All in all, if you like Greek mythology you'll probably find something to appreciate here, but there really isn't anything special about it. It may be fun to watch when you just want to turn off your brain and mindlessly enjoy an action heavy romp .