Review of Immortals (2011) by Bernard L — 01 Jun 2012

Immortals was a much better film that what the critics said it was. To compare it with Clash of the Titans is unfair, as it had a lot more heart and vision in it. I would say it reminded more of 300, with a balance between a bit of character development and action, and of course loads of style. Although itâ(TM)s no ancient Greek tragedy, it uses the source material with more awareness, even though it goes on to create its own mythos with the characters.

A lot of people found the visual style to be over the top, I found that this opera-costume style was used appropriately and although daring it never felt ridiculous or tacky to me. Costumes and sets are inspired by different artistic styles and eras, from Byzantine iconography and Islamic burkas, to Renaissance frescoes and Art Nouveau, all spliced with a bit of ancient Greek.

Henry Cavill was a charismatic lead for the most part, Mickey Rourke did a good job being threatening, even when he was just whispering and eating. Freida Pinto as Phaedra and Johns Hurt/Luke Evans as Zeus were very good too.

However the film was not without its flaws. It felt like it dragged at parts, the characters were a bit generic and without many layers to them. Also there were some weak parts in the plot. Stephan Dorff as Stavros (funny name for an ancient Greek) was a bad casting choice. The âunavoidableâ? romance could and should have been avoided; it was completely underdeveloped and crowbarred in just for the sake of a sex scene. In addition to that, I found the explicit gory violence in certain parts to be excessive and contrasting with the otherwise beautiful aesthetic of the film.

Overall it was a very good film with a bold visual style, but fell short of being great as it suffered from having to bring in the teens with sex and violence, thus becoming cheaper. 3.5/5.