Review: IMMORTALS
If the film 300 showed us nothing else, it was that modern cinema audiences have developed a taste for stories about Ancient Greece that are full of blood splattered he- men with cheese grater abs and a penchant for comic book visuals. So it comes as little surprise that Immortals, the new film from visionary Indian filmmaker Tarsem Singh, exists. What is surprising is how good it is. Though it shares a producer credit with 300 and admittedly it does have a rather buff leading man (future Superman Henry Cavill) and visuals that look ripped from a particularly beautiful graphic novel, this is where the similarities end. Zack Synder’s film is plagued by dire acting and a sense of the ridiculous. Its ambition doesn’t stretch beyond slow mo imagery and crass dialogue. Whereas Immortals feels truly epic, full of the most breathtaking shots and costume work. It’s like one of those antique paintings of Olympian Gods you’d find in The National Gallery but modernized with a pulp colour scheme and some kick ass CGI and special effects and all.
Merging a bunch of well known Greek myths into an almost coherent narrative, the film tells of Theseus (Cavill) a peasant who is selected by Zeus (Luke Evans) and the Olympian Gods, including Athena (Isabel Lucas), to lead the resistance against King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke). The king seeks to kill the Gods by releasing their ancient rivals the Titans by means of an omnipotent weapon known as the Epirus Bow. Frieda Pinto pops up as the Virgin Oracle Phaedra and Stephen Dorff as the wisecracking sidekick Stavros.
The film’s violence is brutal. And that’s putting it mildly. Virgins are slowly roasted, necks are snapped like pencils and one unfortunate soldier is given a rather painful initiation ceremony involving a Thor hammer and a pair of spread legs. You do the math. All of this is at the hands of Tyrannical psycho lord Hyperion played by Hollywood comeback king Mickey Rourke. He is a truly menacing presence. You know every time he is on screen some poor soul is about to meet the Reaper in some cruel albeit ingenious fashion. The action scenes are orchestrated with real style. It bounces between sweeping, sandal battle scenes and skirmishes between the Gods for which Tarsem deploys some stunning slow motion photography. Watch with mouth agape as Ares, the God of War smashes his way through a sea of frozen in motion soldiers. Their bodies bursting like grapefruit.
Tarsem’s vision of the Gods is striking: Olympians with bodies as golden as the sun, draped in outrageous headgear borrowed from Studio 54 and perched in their marble palace in the skies, they can only watch the terror unfolding before them. They are bound by Zeus not to interfere with human affairs under penalty of death. The final fight sequence between the Gods and the Titans is a spectacle to say the least. The Titans are envisioned as tribal and primitive where the Olympians are a superhero team of bronze Gods in matching outfits. It may be bizarre but it’s also stunning.
The screenplay is confusing at best and characters spend plenty of screen time spewing ridiculous speeches about honour and prophesy but who really cares? One does not go to a 3D blockbuster about Gods and warriors expecting a Dickensian grasp of language. Immortals is a ravishing spectacle with images that sear themselves into your memory: Blue skies blotted out by thousands of amber figures and soldiers envisioned as Minotaur’s and vermillion falcons. The temptation is not to blink because you don’t want to miss anything.
Henry Cavill shows the world why he was cast as the new Superman and Australian model Isabel Lucas is a mesmerizing Athena. Mickey Rourke definitely has the most fun though. Brooding in shadow with greasy locks and surrounded by an assortment of slave girls you kind of get the feeling that Rourke’s just playing himself on an average Friday night.
Tarsem’s Immortals is a bit messy and rough around the edges but the sheer beauty of the cinema he creates is more than enough to put the minor issues to sleep.
