Seal the Gates and Prepare for BOREDOM, that should have been rallying cry as Immortals for all that its guts and glory ad campaign promised, failed to live up to expectations and the hype that was promised. With a run time of almost two coma inducing hours the film ran at a tediously slow pace, revolved around a nonsensical plot with holes big enough to push Tartaras through, was miscast with several actors (Stephen Dorff really?), contained entirely to much cheesy dialogue, abused the green screen (c'mon you couldn't have filmed ANY scenes in the real world?) and recycled far to much footage in particular that city built into the side of the cliff was the focus of at least 40 min of the movie. The film bore no resemblance to the movie it was touted to be like (300) nor did it live up to the standards set by Clash of the Titans (the bar was pretty low there). For all the things that went wrong there were some bright spots along the way including (and I will kick myself for saying this) the 3D being awesome, fantastical fight sequences and a subplot involving the Olympian Gods that was far more interesting than any of the plot involving Theseus.
Rather than go into excruciating detail, I will break down the main points:
Theseus/Henry Cavill: This was Henry's big US (if not world) debut in preparation for the role of a lifetime next year when he dons the Superman cape; unfortunately he came in for a soft landing that failed to live up to expectations. It's not that his acting skills were lacking, as the dialogue written for him was utter crap, it was just that the execution of said lines in particular his scene where he attempts to rally the troops was cringe worthy at best. It is unfortunate because I have followed this man's career for years and have always hoped that he would do more than just British television. Based on this performance, I do not believe that he is capable of being a leading man in a one man show and I fear that The Man of Steel could be a bust. Stranger things have happened though, I mean who could have imagined that Christian Bale or Heath Ledger could so brilliantly execute their roles in Batman?
King Hyperion/Mickey Rourke: first of all the writing team completely glossed over the mythology for this character since Hyperion was himself a Titan; why they didn't use another ancient lore king like Midas as the films protagonist is beyond me. Mickey Rourke brings his worst accent (if not embodying Whiplash from Iron Man 3) as the mad king whose one and only goal in life is to free the titans from their imprisonment,so that they can destroy the Olympians. For all its worth Rourke was not that bad and did a decent job with the material he had to work with, however his take on the villain was over the top and at times very redundant.
Rather than go into excruciating detail, I will break down the main points:
Theseus/Henry Cavill: This was Henry's big US (if not world) debut in preparation for the role of a lifetime next year when he dons the Superman cape; unfortunately he came in for a soft landing that failed to live up to expectations. It's not that his acting skills were lacking, as the dialogue written for him was utter crap, it was just that the execution of said lines in particular his scene where he attempts to rally the troops was cringe worthy at best. It is unfortunate because I have followed this man's career for years and have always hoped that he would do more than just British television. Based on this performance, I do not believe that he is capable of being a leading man in a one man show and I fear that The Man of Steel could be a bust. Stranger things have happened though, I mean who could have imagined that Christian Bale or Heath Ledger could so brilliantly execute their roles in Batman?
King Hyperion/Mickey Rourke: first of all the writing team completely glossed over the mythology for this character since Hyperion was himself a Titan; why they didn't use another ancient lore king like Midas as the films protagonist is beyond me. Mickey Rourke brings his worst accent (if not embodying Whiplash from Iron Man 3) as the mad king whose one and only goal in life is to free the titans from their imprisonment,so that they can destroy the Olympians. For all its worth Rourke was not that bad and did a decent job with the material he had to work with, however his take on the villain was over the top and at times very redundant.
Stavros/Stephen Dorff: for the love of god why was he cast in this movie? Seriously everything about Theseus's side kick -thief -turned -hero was pointless, added nothing to the plot and Dorff's channeling of Kiefer Sutherland (his voice mostly) irritated the living shit out of me.
The Olympians/ Zeus/Luke Evans: Since when did the King of the Gods become a washboard abs, 30 something hard body with ridiculously hot 20 something siblings (Kellan Lutz/Poseidon, Daniel Sharman/Aries, Steve Byers/Heracles) & children (Isabel Lucas/Athena, Cory Sevier/Apollo)? I do not understand why the Olympians and their war amongst each other if not the already released titans was not the focus of the film. It is beyond maddening that these artfully inspired well executed characters were not the main focus as everything about them was visually stunning. Each sequence (and there were so few) were the only things that kept me holding on to the notion that the movie was going to get better with that wow factor. When Poseidon ascended from the heavens into the ocean .. awesome.
When Aries arrived to save Theseus by cracking skulls with his hammer .. wow! Then Zeus immolates Aries for violating the law with the fire whip .. incredible. Out of all the performances in the movie, Luke Evans was by in large the best character in the epic and given his lead role in the upcoming Hobbit prequels as Bard the Bowman I expect he will be taking the US by storm, the same way that Orlando Bloom came and went.
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