Immortals

Year: 2011
Director: Tarsem Singh
Cast: Henry Cavill, Luke Evans, Stephen Dorff, Freida Pinto, Isabel Lucas, Mickey Rourke


Plot: King Hyperion seeks a mystical bow that can help him release the Titans from their prison. Zeus refuses to interfere in the affairs of men and chooses instead to rely on a peasant named Theseus, whose mother Hyperion killed, to stop him.


Review: From the trailer, this film indeed looks promising. A sword and sandal epic is guaranteed to be bloody and violent, which would be fun if done right.

However, much to my chagrin, the local censors removed many bits that were deemed too gory for our senses. I'm used to watching films that are censored, but whoever did the job for Immortals did so badly, as the cuts disrupted the flow of the final cut that I watched. Damn you.

But anyway, I shall try to tell you my opinion regardless. Tarsem seems to rely a lot on CGI blood and CGI sets, as the rock cliff home of Theseus seems too good to be real (I could be wrong though). He focused so much on sets that there are virtually no scenes of travelling from one location to another, which made no sense to me. It felt like one moment the characters were in a place, the next moment they were elsewhere. This sure as hell threw the plot into a big mess for me.

Acting wise, Henry Cavill is a pretty good hero as Theseus. He reminds me of Sam Worthington in Clash Of The Titans, only Worthington was better. Mickey Rourke uses his similar sleepy villain style as Hyperion, sometimes it works, sometimes it's just annoying. Stephen Dorff makes a good sidekick for Cavill, but I wished they had focused more on his friendship with Theseus. Luke Evans makes an outstanding Zeus, and Isabel Lucas is just gorgeous as Athena. Another thing I wished for was more time with the gods and less with the humans, alas we don't get that. Freida Pinto was boring to watch unfortunately, she has no chemistry with Cavill.

Overall, Immortals was only so-so for me. They gave a lot of running time for the film, but most of it was spent on Theseus' journey, and not enough on the gods or the supporting characters. If I had a chance to see the violence they removed, maybe I'll like this film more. But for now, it's below my expectations. (3/5)