GUEST REVIEW: Immortals (2D Test Screening)

MOVIE
Immortals

CAST
Henry Cavill, Stephen Dorff

RATING
R

RELEASE
November 11, 2011

DIRECTOR
Tarsem Singh

STUDIO
Relativity Media

RUNNING TIME
approx. 2 hours 10 minutes




STARS
**1/2










REVIEW:

Way back in mid May of this year, there was an early test screening of this weekend's new release, 'Immortals,' starring Mickey Rourke. I was unable to attend, mainly because the projected MPAA rating even then was R. So I passed my passes along to a fellow movie screening fanatic named Cheryl, and I asked her to write a review on what she saw. Here are her thoughts on the film, though I can tell you that she did not see it in 3D, because of how early her cut of the film was. Without further ado, here is Cheryl's review of 'Immortals.'

King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) is pissed off with the world in Ancient Greece. So he decides he will disfigure a lot of men, put masks on them and wage a war like Humanity has never seen. But to do this, he must find the Epirus Bow, which can shoot arrows of tremendous power and, more importantly, free the titans. Now the Titans had been entombed in the walls of Mt. Tartaros since the Gods had defeated them many years ago. King Hyperion knew they wanted revenge and freeing them would not only cause destruction on Earth, but in the Heavens as well.

All the while the Gods know this, and due to some ancient laws that forbid them to interfere with earthly conflicts, they are helpless to stop this madness. However, Zeus (Luke Evans) had an ace up his sleeve, a peasant by the name of Theseus (Henry Cavill), whom he had been grooming since he was a child to lead the world in case of emergency. And Theseus, having watched his mother get her throat slit by one of King Hyperion’s men, accepted the challenge readily, even though he did not know that Zeus was actually his puppet master. And this is where the story ends and the movie begins.

Immortals relies too heavily on its blood, gore and fight scenes. Visually, the throat cutting and gratuitous killing and self mutilation seem all too real and times, and for some may be a bit too much. However, without it, there wouldn’t be much movie left. The dialogue is weak to non existent. Theseus does make one long winded speech during the Epic Battle fight scene, but we knew he would didn’t we? There is also a sub plot where Theseus, is told he must protect the Virgin Oracle Phaedra and he does so after her and her maidens save him. And while protecting her, he sleeps with her. (Really?)

Immortals is going to be considered an epic film by some. Others will think of it as a glorified bloodbath, with scenes stolen from the film “300.” As Director Taresm Singh did both 300 and Immortals, you have to wonder if the rehashed scenes were because he ran out of ideas or because he knew Immortals wasn’t a very good movie and 300 was. In any event, if you liked 300, you will probably like Immortals. It won’t blow you away, but if you love to see extreme battles with lots of blood and no script you’ll enjoy the film. We can only give it 2 ½ stars out of 4 due to the lack of originality and script. At 2 hrs and 10 minutes, we should have gotten more.