Immortals





Directed By: Tarsem Singh

Starring: Henry Cavill, Stephen Dorff, Luke Evans, Isabel Lucas, Kellan Lutz, Freida Pinto, Mickey Rourke, and John Hurt

There's something refreshing about watching a guy chopping off another guy's head and kicking his carcass off a cliff.  The popcorn and beer taste so much better when bludgeoned and bloodied bodies are flying left and right.   Four years ago,  the adaptation of Frank Miller's 300 showed us just how much blood, gore, and kickass stunts action aficionados could take.  Immortals is the latest action flick to try to tap into moviegoers' lust for epic bloody battles on the big screen, the type taken to new levels of ultra-violence in 300.  Though it's  not as good as 300, Immortals is not that far off the mark.  With a badass like Mickey Rourke and action star in the making Henry Cavill, director Tarsem Singh does not let action lovers down.

Long ago, the Olympians imprisoned the Titans in Mount Tartarus and ascended to power.  In the present, King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) seeks to end the reign of the gods by unleashing the Titans.  He needs the Epirus Bow forged by Ares (Daniel Sharman) to do so and will do anything and kill anyone to get his hands on it.  His actions could unleash hell on earth.  Meanwhile, Zeus (Luke Evans) prepares a young peasant named Theseus (Henry Cavill) to lead the resistance against Hyperion.  The only catch is that Theseus thinks his divine mentor is just some old man (John Hurt).

Like any action junkie, I expected great things when I first saw the trailer for Immortals.  Happily, I can say that the film delivered the goods though there's a lot more story to the film than you'd expect.  Because of this, there is a buildup to the epic battle of the film and not as much action as I would have preferred in the earlier parts of the film.  Don't worry though.  There's plenty of blood flowing in this movie.  There are also plenty of heads rolling.

As great as the action sequences are, the film really depends heavily on the performances of the two leads—Mickey Rourke and Henry Cavill. Rourke's King Hyperion is simply an unrivaled badass.  There's a certain menace that Rourke brings to any character on screen, but he's in his element in Immortals.  Give him a creepy mask and a blade, and you've got pure awesomeness.  Henry Cavill also does not disappoint in his first big budget action picture.  He has some pretty awesome fights and plays the good guy well.  Having seen him kick plenty of asses with a sword and shield, it will be hard to imagine him as the Man of Steel in a year and a half.

As enjoyable as Immortals is, there are a couple of small issues with the film.  First, there are a few moments where the filmmakers forget they're making a film about ancient Greece.  News flash!  The metric system did not exist 3,300 years ago.  Second, there are some moments during the flick for just about every actor when his or her acting is a bit shoddy.  Because neither of these issues really takes away from the film, I can let them go.

While I thoroughly enjoyed Immortals, it goes quite well with alcohol.  It's every action junkie's wet dream, and that dream requires a few rounds of beer.  Immortals gets a 0.06% rating.