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How entertaining? ★★★☆☆
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆ 10 November 2011
This article is a review of IMMORTALS. |
"Stand your ground! Fight for honor! Fight for the man beside you! Fight for those who bore you! Fight for your children! Fight for your future! Fight for your name to survive! Fight! For immortality!" Theseus
Director Tarsem Singh’s THE FALL is magnificent, a stunningly beautiful dark fairy tale (and possibly one of the best looking movies ever). I had huge hopes for his take on Greek mythology. After the dire CLASH OF THE TITANS and the soulless TROY, the bar has been set pretty low recently. The wondrous and imaginative Ray Harryhausen stop-animation features seem a distant memory. IMMORTALS doesn’t resuscitate the genre, disappointingly; there’s an occasional spasm of imagination and panache, but no way enough of those ingredients to be satisfied.
Director Tarsem Singh’s THE FALL is magnificent, a stunningly beautiful dark fairy tale (and possibly one of the best looking movies ever). I had huge hopes for his take on Greek mythology. After the dire CLASH OF THE TITANS and the soulless TROY, the bar has been set pretty low recently. The wondrous and imaginative Ray Harryhausen stop-animation features seem a distant memory. IMMORTALS doesn’t resuscitate the genre, disappointingly; there’s an occasional spasm of imagination and panache, but no way enough of those ingredients to be satisfied.
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Instead of excitement we have been given gore and sadism. Mickey Rourke delivers a nasty turn as King Hyperion, smashing all in his path looking for the ultimate weapon, the Emperor’s Bow – the only thing that can free the titans, imprisoned by the gods in a mountain. It’s not real clear why he wants to unleash these malevolent creatures. Perhaps he thinks he can control them with the bow? Anyway, who can stop him? It seems only Theseus (played without charisma by, worryingly the new Superman, Henry Cavill). Even though the gods are not allowed to intervene directly in human affairs (again, why?), Zeus secretly trains him. Theseus should be a bit of a badass, but he’s too wet. Instead of giving him a personality, he is slotted into a tired revenge plot, whereby it seems the filmmakers think that is enough characterisation. Rather than surrounding Cavill with strong actors to up his game, it was decided to give him Freida Pinto and Stephen Dorff to play off; while not awful, they hardly light up the screen once you get used to their good looks.
Head-scratching plot movements, plus poor scripting and bland performances, how come three stars for entertainment? I was toying with two, but there is enough action and mayhem to just about justify the score, and your time.
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