Review of Immortals (2011) by Lara C — 11 Nov 2012

The poster proudly boasts âFrom the makers of 300â?; now I quite liked â~300â(TM) and so I thought Iâ(TM)d give this one a go. Made in the same style with a comic-book look and feel to the visuals it does very much grab you, in the visual sense at least. The trouble with a lot of Greek legends is that thereâ(TM)s an awful lot of back-story to get through before you can relax and enjoy the film. This is no exception; quite a lot of time is taken up with explaining just who is who and whoâ(TM)s a god and why this king wants that etc⦠It all can be a bit of a hard lump to swallow at the beginning of the film but once youâ(TM)re past that itâ(TM)s pretty straightforward stuff.

I must say I did enjoy the visual style of this one, with a large amount of CGI work that is all very well done, itâ(TM)s a treat for the eye⦠if a little dark (in the visual sense). The plot is pretty complicated but hereâ(TM)s a very brief (spoiler free â" I hope) synopsis: The brutal King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) wants the Epirus Bow, a mythical weapon that will enable him to release the Titans from their prison deep within the walls of Mount Tartaros. A young man, Theseus (Henry Cavill) has vowed vengeance on Hyperion after he murders his mother. A priestess, Phaedra (Freida Pinto) holds the key to the location of the bow but she manages to evade capture and escapes with Theseus. Add to this the gods, led by Zeus (Luke Evans) and a mysterious old man (John Hurt) who has been a friend to Theseus since birth and there, in a nut-shell, you have it.

The performances were all pretty good with Mickey Rourke standing out for me; he has such a great screen presence. A very violent film with plenty of claret on show, which will please all the splatter-fest fans. Itâ(TM)s all very well done but does rely heavily on the CGI to carry the story across. The question is, does the story have enough weight to come across through all the effects? Well, for me, it does⦠but only just.

SteelMonsterâ(TM)s verdict: RECOMMENDED (Just).

My score: 5.8/10.