Immortals

FORWARD: There might be a few of you who read this blog on a regular basis, very few probably, but if you do you would know that Tuesdays are normally days when I go to the theater to review a current movie.  Unfortunately, due to financial and time constraints, I haven't been able to make it to the theaters for the past couple of weeks, but you have my promise that as soon as I can I will be back in the theater seats to give you reviews of current movies.

If anybody in humanity’s past has succeeded in immortality it would be the ancient Greek and Romans.  Their myths of multiple gods, epics of heroes overcoming frightening beasts, and history of real heroes live on over two-thousand years after the end of their power.  Their stories still capture our imaginations to this day, they live on through us.  “Immortals” comes out of this interest in ancient Greek culture and tells an original tale of Theseus, who is popular for slaying the Minotaur. 

In this incarnation of Theseus he is a mortal who is trained Zeus who poses as an old man in Theseus’ village.  When his village is attacked and his mother’s throat slit by King Hyperion, Theseus is guided on a mission to save his people by the oracle Phaedra.  As he is burying his mother, he finds the Epirus Bow, which was lost when the Gods fought the Titans.  Theseus leads his small group on a revenge mission against Hyperion, but loses the bow in a scuffle and one of Hyperion’s minions brings the bow to the king.  Hyperion uses the bow to release the Titans, who’ve been locked away in Mount Tartarus since before the dawn of man, which causes a massive battle pitting Gods against Titans while the humans’ squabble outside.  Theseus battles against Hyperion while the Gods struggle to contain the Titans.  Just when all seems lost, Zeus, after watching his fellow Gods killed at the hands of the Titans, pulls the mountain down on top of the Titans, encasing them in rock forever.  Theseus’ soul is taken to Mount Olympus just as Tartarus falls, but his legend lives on.  The movie ends with his son examining a statue of Theseus killing the Minotaur.

An interesting part of any movie about Greek myths is how the director decides to portray the Gods.  They’ve had many different looks from Disney’s “Hercules” with their classic, more fantastical look to “Clash of the Titans” armoring their gods and giving them a more realistic vibe.  “Immortals” portrays its gods as the brightest beings in this dark movie.  They are dressed in gold with large, regal headgear and their gold light draws them out of the movie and clearly defines them from the humans.  At first glance the gods are strange to look upon because they stand out so much from the film, but as the movie continues their visual representation makes more sense.  Personally, I prefer the classical depictions of Greek gods, but I thought this depiction was very majestic and I enjoyed the effort to make them stand out from the humans in the story because they are indeed gods.  I like the thought to make the visual distinction.  Although, by that same token, I was unimpressed with the titans in this movie.  When I think of titans I imagine large menacing characters, but in “Immortals” the titans are thin human figures with cracked skin.  They only become menacing when you see them killing the gods, but they still don’t live up to their names.

Another amusing choice for “Immortals” is the mise en scene.  Tarsem Singh goes to great lengths to show earth as a dark, dirty place while the gods are golden, shining heroes, but I think he might have gone too far down the rabbit hole on this decision.  Parts of the movie are so dark I can hardly see what is going on.  This happens mostly in scenes with king Hyperion so I’m not sure if this was a strategy to depict him as scarier or a direct opposite of the bright gods, but it gets annoying at times. 

“Immortals” is an entertaining, original take on a Greek myth that plays out as many other Greek epics do, but in a somewhat realistic sense of the genre, the gods are strikingly golden fantasies, but the Minotaur is a man in barbed wire armor.  This disconnect between these two extremes doesn’t detract from the movie, but it definitely had me thinking about other things than the story while it was playing out on my screen.  I would suggest this movie if you want an interesting take on a fable, or if you like dark action movies.

3/5