'Immortals' - Movie Review

Singh has borrowed from Greek history and mythology (mostly the latter - Theseus, the Minotaur, the Titans) to create what he hoped was an epic story. As usual, he's half succeeded. And unlike most directors, his success and failure within the film are sharply divided between the visual and the story. This is a blazing visual masterpiece with a story that's just kind of traditional and dull (which is arguably better than some of his films, where the stories are occasionally staggeringly awful).

Henry Cavill is Theseus, a peasant educated as a warrior by an old man (John Hurt) who eventually turns out to be Zeus (Luke Evans). Mickey Rourke plays the king Hyperion, who is searching for "The Epirus Bow," a weapon of the gods that will allow him to unleash the long chained Titans as vengeance on the Gods. In the process, his army is laying waste to Greece - most notably Theseus' village.

Hyperion is played as a remorseless man who kills and tortures without the slightest pang of conscience. And in case you didn't get the point the first time, he's shown doing horrible things multiple times. All the plot points are delivered with this kind of subtlety. But the images accompanying this painfully poorly presented story are dazzling: the film is delivered almost entirely in gold and black - sort of black and white, but gold has replaced the grays. And then there's the occasional gorgeous red highlights. And the forms on screen ... always perfect, exactly as Singh wants you to see them, nothing ever mars his images. And they ARE beautiful.

Fans of cinematography should rush out and see this one yesterday (although perhaps with the sound down a bit). Everyone else should probably just skip it. Doesn't much change Singh's record: this is what he does.