Immortals (2011) starring Henry Cavill, Mickey Rourke, Stephen Dorff, Freida Pinto, Luke Evans, John Hurt, Joseph Morgan directed by Tarsem Singh Movie Review

Immortals (2011)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Henry Cavill in Immortals (2011)

Looks Can be Misleading

After the Gods defeated the Titans and imprisoned them deep within Mount Tartaros a new band of evil is sweeping across the land. King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) and his legion of ruthless soldier are destroying all which gets in their way in their search for the legendary Epirus Bow which is said to have power beyond all imagination. And if Hyperion finds the bow he plans to use it to release the Titans in order to destroy the Gods. Unable to intervene due to an ancient law the Gods have to hope that Theseus (Henry Cavill), just a peasant who comes forwards can save the day with the help of those who join him in the fight.

Back in the 80s when I was growing up I enjoyed playing the latest computer games with ever improving graphics and I enjoyed watching action movies, the sort where one guy would save the day. Now whilst I might have grown up and gained a much more varied taste in entertainment it seems that the movie industry hasn't, still churning out those same action movies but now with a lot more bells and whistles due to the ever improving computer systems creating the visually impossible. It just goes to show that either Hollywood is unimaginative or that we as humans don't really change when it comes to entertainment.

Mickey Rourke in Immortals (2011)

That brings me to "Immortals" the sort of movie which would have been right up my street as a teenager with its out of this world look and frequent action scenes, although it would have been an 18 certificate back then rather than the 15 which it is now. But as a grown up with more varied tastes I found it a rather vacuous experience with a storyline which struggles to fill its 110 minute running time and characters which are not defined other than by their muscles.

What it means is that "Immortals" is a movie all about its look and in fairness the whiz kids in the art department have created something out of this world. I suppose it is what younger audiences expect now, a movie where the visual detail distracts them from the shallowness of the story and even shallower characters. On the subject of the characters and the actors it is again all about the look, how Henry Cavill's toned body looks when it is glistening in sweat and he is thrusting his spear into someone. But for the exception of Mickey Rourke who for some reason started to remind me of Oliver Reed there is no depth to the characters as the looks is what counts.

The thing is that I get it, "Immortals" was never about a great story or interesting characters and was only ever about creating something visually stunning to appeal to a generation of popcorn movie fans. But whilst that means technically it works it is a shame that behind all the fancy, fantasy art work and good looking actors there couldn't be something more intellectually stimulating.

What this all boils down to is that "Immortals" as a product works, it delivers what young audiences appear to want and does it well with a fantastic look. But it is a shallow movie with about 20% story and 80% look which goes from the appeal of the actors to the brutality of the action.


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