Visionary director Tarsem Singh (The Cell) and the producers of 300 unleash an epic tale of a power-mad king who razes ancient Greece in search of a legendary weapon, while a heroic villager rises up against him.
Bloodthirsty King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) and his murderous Heraklion army are rampaging across Greece in search of the long lost Bow of Epirus - a weapon powerful enough to overthrow the Gods of Olympus. As village after village is obliterated, a stonemason named Theseus (Henry Cavill, soon to play the caped one in the rebooted Superman) vows to avenge the death of his mum who perished in one of Hyperion's raids. Phaedra (Freida Pinto) has visions of Theseus' future and becomes convinced that he is the key to stopping the destruction. With her help, Theseus assembles a small band of followers and takes on the King.
Tarsem Singh’s previous films have been triumphs of style over substance. I mean that in the best possible way, especially in the case of the astonishingly over-the-top The Fall. The idea of Singh’s visual sensibility colliding head on with a fantasy blockbuster, in 3D no less, was therefore exhilarating. You can feel the “but” coming though, can’t you? Immortals could have fused Singh’s earlier works with post-300 Hollywood – but it doesn’t.
Much of his familiar imagery is intact in the form of great costumes, surreal use of CGI and dudes wearing masks and body paint. But the visual craziness has been diluted – a more mainstream audience is clearly in mind – and therefore there’s a need for serious storytelling ability, especially given that Immortals’ narrative is (very) loosely based on Greek mythology. That’s where the problem lies. The sets may look great, extravagantly built one moment and resembling a ‘70s matte painting that’s mind-bogglingly painted in 3D the next, but the acting on them? Jeez…
The dialogue doesn’t do the cast any favours, a hodge-podge of nonsense that is just really there to stitch together cool fight scenes and sets. The delivery is like rehearsals for a second rate theatre production – pompous, lifeless, and a bit awkward. For some reason Mickey Rourke and Stephen Dorff are in this too, and, just like the early ‘80s pseudo-epics this most closely resembles, they seem to be on board just to lend some C-list actor recognition.
By Steve Newall, Flicks.co.nz
Not very good at all worse than clash of the titans at least this movie had titans in it but they looked like extras from apocolypto . the Minotaur was pretty cool but that was it really . Micky rourkes helmet just looked wrong
better than telly
A pretty lukewarm movie with a lot of 'show off the 3D' moments in it. Mickey Rourke was great as King Hyperion. He certainly knows how to castrate those who annoy him. If he had done that to a dog, the SPCA would want a word with him.
I left this movie about three quarters of the way through. You know when it's crap when your mind wanders to other things and you lose focus on the actual movie. Very disappointed as I was expecting so much more. The fight scenes were good, but the acting - to be honest - was terrible. I wish I had gone to see Puss in Boots instead which was on around the same time...
I may be harsh but to compare apples & oranges or in this case lemons this was not all that great. & then there's the Titans! The fight scenes are the only thing going for this movie, it falls short of could have been better to don't waste your money & wait for the DVD...
It isn’t any smarter than its inspirations, just prettier.
Without doubt the best-looking awful movie you will ever see.
It has more than enough blood, guts and glamour to satisfy.
What saves Immortals as a moviegoing experience is the exuberant, kid-in-a-candy-store virtuosity of its director.
An entertaining if not entirely studious classical mythology yarn.
We've been told the NZ release date for this flick is Thursday, 24th Nov 2011.
Release date: November 24th 2011.
We haven't received times for this movie in this location yet. However these are updated as cinemas announce them, so check back soon. Hopefully the lovely cinemas in your location will choose to play it shortly. ~Ed.
