Immortals is a lot like 300. It has ancient Greek warriors, fantastic action sequences, and intense visuals. Unfortunately, it is not nearly as fun to watch as that iconic movie, and Immortals ends up feeling like a bunch of senseless scenes strung together in order to showcase some beautiful visuals.
The plot sounds like something out of a Milton novel. After discovering that they were not actually immortal, the gods fought each other in a legendary war. The victors remained gods, while the losers became titans and were imprisoned inside the earth.
The movie begins with a woman’s vision of somebody releasing these titans. Under normal circumstances, the gods cannot interfere in the affairs of men, and must watch from afar as men destroy each other with war. However, if the titans released, this no longer holds true. You can guess what happens next.
Much of the story is told from the point of view of a young thief (Henry Cavill), who watched his entire village burn and saw his mother killed in front of his eyes. The same woman who foresaw the release of the titans – the ‘Oracle’ (Freida Pinto) – believes that this man has been blessed by the gods.
For that reason, the fates of these two characters become inexorably linked. The plot gets progressively more fantastic from that point onward. If you’re not the kind of person who enjoys a story featuring personified gods, magical bows, and assaults on massive, fortified cities, then Immortals may not be the movie for you.
Visuals are a strong point throughout. Like 300, Immortals has a graphic novel feel to it. Many of the scenes are breathtakingly beautiful to look at, and the action sequences are a blast. Every battle is an excuse to show more cool action, and cities are built in the most ridiculous environments, like on a cliff thousands of feet above the frothing ocean.
However striking the visuals may be, they do not make up for the convoluted, senseless plot and the silly dialogue. If you can follow everything that’s going on with the storyline, then you’ve done more than I have. As the action gets more chaotic, sense and logic seems to fly out the window.
One scene in particular demonstrates how ridiculous the action can be. During an assault on a city, a character fires a magical arrow at a wall, creating a hole through which thousands of men can attack.
However, once they’re through this hole, they find that the city’s defenders are standing in a narrow hallway, four abreast, to turn them back. Instead of avoiding this hallway, or firing another magical arrow at the wall, the men throw themselves by the thousands into this meat grinder, so to speak.
Moments like this show what Immortals is truly focused on: providing the epic battle sequences that, while being completely illogical, will still make you say ‘wow’. With plenty of delightful visuals and gory, chaotic action, Immortals is best when it sticks to its strengths.
2 stars out of 5
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