



The movie ‘Immortals’ is a visually stunning film, backed up by poor acting, a weak narrative and no accuracy to the Greek mythology it sought to portray.

‘Immortals’ is the tale of Theseus, a young warrior who refuses knighthood to care for his mother. By bad luck he finds himself taken prisoner by King Hyperion and winds up stuck in the centre of a war between the gods, titans, and a revenge crazed warlord aiming to take over the world. With the help of the magical Epirus bow, a sexy Oracle and a few gods he must try and prevent the war before everybody dies.

The Good:

‘Immortals’ is a beautifully shot, well-choreographed film. From the opening shot we are treated to grand landscapes with rich lighting, which works well with the brown, gold and red dominated colour palette that dominates the movie. The fight scenes are one of the biggest redeeming qualities about ‘immortals’, aside from one little problem that I will come to later. Henry Cavill (Theseus) does a fine job of hacking and slashing his adversaries, and generally just being badass. The action is fast paced, direct, and has been made to have the effect of pseudo-realism. The dynamic camera angles add to the quality of the action sequences as we can see everything clearly. The use of CGI has been utilized to enhance the scenes and the actors.

As a side note I would like to mention that whilst the acting in ‘Immortals’ did not impress me I have to say that Mickey Rourke stands out for me. As King Hyperion he was an awesome antagonist.

The Bad:

Whilst this movie uses Greek gods, and myths to get its storyline, it does not by any means follow the actual of Theseus. Whilst I cannot explain the entire history here I can highlight a few points. Theseus was of royal descent, not a peasant, he was a great conqueror and warrior who was the founder of Athens. There is very little mention of Hyperion in the old myths, and I believe he never fought him. Furthermore the Gods never intervened in any of Theseus’s adventures unlike in the movie where they are constantly interfering.

The acting in ‘Immortals’ is sub par to say the least. Theseus is robotic, emotionless and utterly forgettable. Whilst he nicely filled the action hero stereotype, he failed to fulfill the role; his lack of personality and flair makes him a hard sell to audiences as the savior of earth. Freida Pinto (Phaedra) who plays Cavill’s love interest, the Oracle falls short of the mark she is fairly useless aside from seeing stuff now and again, and doesn’t endear herself despite taking off her clothes, in what may be one of the most awkward, robotic love scenes ever.

The Ugly:

I wish I could say ‘Immortals’ had an interesting story, in spite of leaving the original Greek myths, but it doesn’t. Everything went wrong, the characters are far too predictable; they follow their path as you expect them to. The story became stale; a classic Hero’s tale corrupted valuing of style over substance. With a production budget of 80$ million, it is easy to see where the priorities for this film really were.

One thing to look out for is during the war between with Theseus and his men, against King Hyperion’s men; watch for the first clash when a certain brave individual jump kicks another and then plays dead without ever having being hit. My brother pointed this out to me and what had been seen could not be unseen. It is a glaring mistake and should be mentioned though, ultimately, inconsequential.

My final criticism is of the ‘Titans’ who really failed to live up to their name. Their costumes weren’t fitting, and they jumped around like children instead of immortal beings who could challenge the gods. It wasn’t a very large part of the movie in the grand scheme of things, but they built up a climax that failed to crescendo, and it was a bitter let down.

IMDB’s current rating for the movie is 6.1, and I would have to disagree, if I were to put a number on it, I would say closer to 4. It is a skin-deep experience, which will satisfy your craving for eye candy. If you’re looking for anything meaningful, or noteworthy then look elsewhere.

More information on Theseus

‘Immortals’ IMDB page