Mickey Rourke plays the warrior king Hyperion, hellbent on a bloody quest to obtain the Epirus Bow, which he plans to use to release the Titans and unleash their fury on mankind. Hyperion's wife and children died years previously, and Hyperion blames 'the gods' for not coming to their aid. So, he is in fact a disgruntled non-believer! Now he plans to free the Titans, who were imprisoned by the gods years ago after a grueling battle.
Cavill, playing the hero Theseus, of course becomes involved in stopping Rourke, but not after having a conversion himself. Formally a nonbeliever in the gods of Olympus (or at least 'agnostic'), he comes to realize and accept them, especially as they came to his assistance in a crucial battle. Cavill does a convincing job as the noble mortal Theseus.
But for me it's really Rourke who makes the film. His raspy voiced, hate-filled Hyperion is a musclebound despot, part Conan the Barbarian/part Doctor Doom. While I'm not 100% familiar with the Greek mythology represented in the film, it's a rousing, comic book style battle between good and evil. The film's shot beautifully, Old World classicism in golds and brown. While the scenes look like paintings, the action, and there's plenty of bloody, visceral action, moves like a modern video game. But for me, visually, it's grounded enough to work as part of the overall film. Digital effects for me are always tricky to enjoy, but they're pulled off here with convincing results.
I skipped the remake of CLASH OF THE TITANS, but liked IMMORTALS. Now I wish we could have some big-budget action films like this that deal heavily with Aztec mythology. FYI: I was sent a copy of the DVD to review, and like I said, movie reviews haven't been a big part of my blog, but I don't have a problem talking about a film I enjoyed. If you want to see it, the DVD comes out Tuesday, March 6!
1 comment:
Great review! I haven’t had a chance to see Immortals yet, but I think I’ll take a look at it! I heard mixed reviews on the movie in theaters so I thought I would wait until the movie came out on DVD. I know that Blockbuster has the movie available today. For $10 a month, I have Blockbuster @Home which lets me rent DVDs and Blu-Rays from the store and by mail anytime I want, as well as streaming movies to my TV, computer or iPad anywhere I am such as on lunch at DISH where I work or at school waiting for class to start. I really like watching movies in Blu-Ray, so I think I’ll rent it that way.
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