"Immortal" combat

Films featuring abnormally muscular men poured into sandals and heavy armor have been gracing the silver screen since the dawn of cinema. Movies of the gods such as "Clash of the Titans," "Conan The Barbarian" and "300" have appeared onscreen recently but have not received the same screen time as the more popular superhero and  supernatural genres. While "Immortals" is far from a perfect adaptation of Greek mythology, it delivers how it was meant to: with barely clothed men, lots of blood and loud inaudible grunts to fill in the blank spaces between the action.

"Immortals" follows a new take on the story of Theseus (Henry Cavill). Theseus is a human living in a small village about 3,000 years ago. He is known as a peasant by the villagers, but was trained as a warrior at a young age. As Theseus lives day to day on Earth, the gods who watch from above are haunted by feelings of war. Years before Theseus's time, the gods went to war, and the losers – called Titans – were imprisoned in Mount Tartarus. Only the Epirius Bow, the god of war Ares's lost weapon, can set the Titans free, which would bring doom upon the world. King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) sets out to destroy all the worshiping temples and find the Epirius Bow. Lo and behold, Theseus's village holds one of these temples, ultimately forcing him to face King Hyperion's rage.

The movie immediately throws the audience into a vivid and intense world. Viewers can tell fairly quickly that this movie was touched by the same hands as "300." Small details such as sand whipping around under passing arrows or capes draped gracefully and flowing from side to side as characters walk simply pull in the audience. The 3-D definitely helps when it comes to sound and creating a distance between the foreground and background. One scene in particular creates a perfect mesh of sound and visuals as the god Poseidon dives from his perch and collides head first with the ocean below. The sound as the waves part and shift to create a giant wave may easily cause members of the theater audience to stare in awe.

In addition to the visuals, the performances help round out the experience. Cavill gives a solid performance as Theseus and really has the audience gunning for a positive outcome after all his hardships. His team of oracle Phaedra (Freida Pinto) and cunning thief Stavros(Stephen Dorff)  allows for a good balance of slight comedy and romance tossed  into the testosterone frenzy. Rourke steals every scene as King Hyperion, digging into his darkest places to pull out a truly ruthless and unlikeable character. The humans fair better than the gods acting-wise, however.  Aside from Zeus (Luke Evans), the performances of the gods fall flat, even with their extravagant head pieces and gold attire.

The CGI works in the small details as well as the big moments in this film. It would be impossible to count the number of spears that landed in the faces and bodies of Hyperion's army, for example..

The filmmakers were sure to let the blood start flying whenever the audience's interest could begin to wane. The fight choreography is extremely fluid, like a deadly dance of spears, daggers and fists. Besides the fighting, the mesmerizing color palette certainly helps set the mood of the movie. Bright colors of gold and white are sprinkled here and there when the movie shifts to the gods conversing, while harsh tones of tans and red are thrown in when the audience comes back to Earth.

The biggest disappointment of "Immortals" is the last 10 minutes of film. Viewers are taken from an intense and bloody battle to a sudden, seemingly rushed ending that leaves more questions than answers. While visuals and action can go a long way toward making up for a suffering storyline, they cannot carry it to the battlefield and allow it to walk away unscathed.

"Immortals" receives 3 out of 5 stars.

Originally Posted Here!