Immortals

Starring: Henry Cavill, Mickey Rourke, Stephen Dorff, Freida Pinto, Luke Evans, John Hurt, Isabel Lucas, Kellan Lutz
Directed by: Tarsem Singh
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Drama, Fantasy
2011

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) is bent on resurrecting the Titans and waging war against the gods. Only Theseus (Henry Cavill), a man chosen by Zeus (Luke Evans) himself can stand in his way.

Review:

Tim: Immortals is an average movie in every sense of the world. There was simply nothing in this entire movie that made me sit up or take notice. It felt like a redundant, tired story. The excitement is missing. Yes, the film certainly looks stylish, like a "renaissance painting" as the director described it. It looks impressive, but nothing about it lives up to expectations.

Like Clash of the Titans, we have a story about the interactions between mortals and gods in the ancient world. I suppose they lay out a fairly clear explanation, but it doesn't exactly all add up. The gods take a hands-off approach to meddling in human affairs, except when they don't. A mortal ruler, King Hyperion decides to obtain a mythical bow that will allow him to free the Titans to wage war against the gods. Theseus, with the help from some of the gods, battles against him. It's certainly an interesting premise, but it plays out in the most expected, conventional of ways. Nothing in this movie seemed new or exciting. It felt like the same story we've seen countless times before.

I wasn't overly impressed with Henry Cavill in the lead role. Sure, he looked the part and I suppose he did an okay job, but I never really cared about his character. I never felt the pain of his loss or what drove him to the feats he achieved. He was a lackluster, forgettable hero, and Cavill is mostly to blame for this (the script is a close second). That hurts the entire movie.

Mickey Rourke, on the other hand, was perfectly cast as King Hyperion. Rourke is such an underrated actor. He brings strength to the part and is very enjoyable as the menacing antagonist. His performance is the best part of the film. Now, his excellent work gets lost in the film. There's so much happening and so many quick cuts that it's easy to lose sight of what a great job Rourke does.

The supporting cast is fine. Stephen Dorff felt a bit wasted in a throwaway role. Freida Pinto was fine as an oracle, but I'm still not convinced she is a great actress. Luke Evans did good work as Zeus, and it was fun to see John Hurt in a small but important role. No one here really excelled, but they did decent work.

The movie certainly looks impressive, especially during the fight scenes. While it looks stylish, there wasn't a single fight scene that really engaged me. It was pretty obvious who was going to win at any given time, and the film didn't do a good job of creating real suspense. The big battle between the gods and the titans looks impressive, but it was underwhelming. The slow motion looked cool, but I'm not sure why the titans would move in slow motion as they died.

Immortals isn't a terrible movie. It does enough right to maintain a moderate level of interest from the audience. I was never drastically bored, but I never felt any excitement or joy from the film, either. It was simply a lukewarm effort. When I think about this movie, the main emotion I feel is ambivalence. It should have been better, but it could have been worse.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Clash of the Titans, Wrath of the Titans