[rating:2]

Director:  Tarsem Singh

Producer: Relativity Media, Atmoshphere Entertainment MM,

Hollywood Gang

Cast:          Mickey Rourke, Henry Cavill, Freida Pinto,

Luke Evans, John Hurt, Kellan Lutz

Story:       Charley Parlapanides,  Vlas Parlapanides

Genre:     Adventure/ Fantasy

Runtime:  110 min

Rate:         R

 

 

 

What can you say about a movie , which is beautiful, impressive, artistic and boring to death? That it deserves 1 star and that is solely for the beautiful Rembrandt style painting, with glossy light, deep golden and reds and amazing cut scenes.

As the film opens it seriously hitghtens our expectations from it. The locations are superb, the colors, the graphics, sometimes muted and sometimes glossy. It opens with Rourke, the mad, blood thristy, power hungry king Hyperion, rleasing the defeated Titans from their cage with the Epirus bow. Next moment we know it is Frieda Pinto, as the seer/ visionary/ oracle who is also a virgin ( this has been mentioned too many times to ignore!!)dressed in deep red down with ample cleavage and legs dreaming of the future and this is the deed one needs to prevent.

OHKAY!!!

Next we move to Theseus (Cavill), chopping wood with John Hurt saying deep philosophical ‘stuff’ to him. The picture of a man chopping wood is the best that you will ever see it in Hollywood, and that is not because Henry Cavill is good looking and wearing the most grand -looking dress a lumberjack can wear (curtsey: Eiko Heshioka in charge of costumes), but the set design itself is amazing. They are beside the sea, the sun light glimmers on the actors, the sea the mountains, an artistic looking bark lie as if it is a painting and a dialogue is in continuation!!

As far the story goes, Theseus is Zeus’s chosen one, to stand for men and defeat King Hyperion, and stop him from releasing the Titans and attacking the mount Olympus and defeating the Gods. For some reason Zeus is against intervening the processes and attempts to coerce but not interfere and help men out, until the Titans are released.

Theseus is son of well a priestess, impregnated with Theseus and without any idea who his father his, earning her the title of ‘whore’. Zues on the other hand is disguised as ‘the old man’ (John Hurt) and has trained young Theseus since he was a boy ( on bark of a tree, and the tree still stands, in spite of so much attack!!). As story goes, Hyperion attacks, villagers flee, Theseus finds his mother murdered in front of him and discovers the Epirus Bow. Also in the mean time sees and sleeps with the Virgin Oracle ( who gallantly looses her virginity to Theseus, that too in 3D)…

Well, the movie was more tiring than this. As the design goes, this one has to be the best looking film yet, where each shot, however unimportant, looks like worth a million dollars. Each shot, especially a cut scene where the desert glimmering in moonlight changes to the sea glittering in the sun, it was beautiful. Tarsem Singh definitely had a vision.  The dresses, the masks the warriors all looked so well thought out. It was a re-living of the chiaroscuro paintings, and Caravaggio would simply be at the back of mind when you see the deep reds, dark shadows and bright lights and golden shimmers.

However the scrip in Immortals  was weak! After all this is a movie and people go there with popcorn and nachos and buddies and they definitely don’t go there to understand the aesthetics of painting styles. At the maximum , the viewers will agree that the movie looks breathtakingly nice and that is all, because that is all there is to it.  On the other hand at times consecutive shots will seem to be disconnected. At times it seemed like it is upto the viewers to fill in the deep gaps.

On one hand Singh has gone to great extent in depicting exactly how blood-thirsty King Hyperion is, and Mickey Rourke looks every bit of the part. However, he also looked a little drunk, which I  understand, flamboyant- which is also agreeable, cruel  and that is good too, but not the kind that will chill you to bones, though some shots will!!

Freida Pinto, had nothing much to do. She did her job, as much as she could, however there was very little to do. She looks great and looks good with Henry Cavill too. Her role was little too unrealistic, even by fantasy film standards.  For one point being, how ancient Greeks, that is to say as ancient when Gods used to turn up in Men’s world , did the oracle find a perfectly fitted, bust-enhancing corset!!!

Henry Cavill looked good, and fitted the role well, wish he had more dialogues and actions. He along with the Gods ended up looking like models in an art class, with color codes defined. All the Gods including  Luke Evans, Isabel Lucas, Kellan Lutz looked as good as they good, while discussing fates of men, and all they had to do was pull some, good stunts at the very end.

To be honest, Immortals was artistic, in the literal way. The way the characters sat, even while looking tired, enhanced on forms, angles and it was easy to figure out that they were posing for a still frame.  The war sequence between God and Titans were good, and it is indeed strange but Singh made splattering blood and dissecting human bodies look beautiful. It reminded of 300 but it lacked the interesting story that 300 brought in. However all that could not cover up the serious lack in the script that failed to build up the tension for the final battle. Compared to the whole development phase, the battle was too short. At times the architecture shown, didn’t look ancient, they looked plain modern, classy, sophisticated and little like theatrical props. The director elongated the story too much, and paid too much attention to decorating the shots that probably he didnot see, that inside the movie was passionless, and lacked enthusiasm. All the actors except Rourke looked laid-back and that seriously does not go well in a fantasy movie.

Verdict: A good one time watch.

Immortal releases on 10th of November in Greece, Hungary, Russia, Slovenia and Netherlands. 11th November in Canada, Estonia, Czech Republic, India, Indonesia, Finland, Germany,Italy, Poland, UK, Japan, USA. Belgium on 16th of November and Singapore and Hong Kong on 17th November, France and Spain on 23rd; Australia, Portugal on 24th, Sweden 25th November. Thailand 1st December and Brazil on 23rd December.