First and foremost, Classical Studies majors and anyone who is a Greek mythology nerd need not apply. This storyline does not stick to classic Greek mythology and takes some liberties, so if that will bother you, you may want to skip it. Personally, I like Greek mythology, but I saw it more as creative license; everyone may not feel the same.
When King Hyperion and the Heraklions begin trudging across Greece on their quest to obtain the Epirus Bow in order to release the Titans at Mount Tartarus, Theseus wants nothing more than to escape from their village with his beloved mother and his friend, the "old man" (John Hurt), who is actually his father Zeus (Luke Evans, The Three Musketeers) in disguise. Because he is a bastard and his mother is scorned by the village, they are left behind to wait with the other villagers deemed unworthy to take the first caravan out. Theseus is captured by Hyperion as a slave to work in the salt mines and finds himself being held in the same place as Phaedra and her sisters, whom Hyperion believes can tell him where the Epirus Bow is hidden. Phaedra has a vision about Theseus and makes a plan of escape, knowing him to be important. A handful of slaves are able to escape along with Phaedra and Theseus, including Stavros (Stephen Dorff), who becomes a close friend and fellow warrior of Theseus. In their attempts to thwart Hyperion from obtaining the Epirus Bow, Theseus and company place themselves in grave danger, but Zeus orders his fellow Olympians to stay out of the matters of man. When Poseidon (Kellan Lutz, Twilight series), Athena (Isabel Lucas) and Ares can stand by and watch no longer, they intervene, facing Zeus' wrath, yet the Bow still falls into Hyperion's violent hands. As the Titans make their escape and wreak bloody havoc on the Olympians, so Hyperion's army attacks Theseus and those Greeks willing to stand up to them and the ensuing battle is bloody and epic.
Immortals has a very 300 feel to it. Sometimes the color palette is dropped to sepia tone to make the copious amounts of bright red blood stand out even more and the battles drop into slow-mo to indicate the speed of the gods. Immortals has a nice visual aesthetic, although it is understandably quite bloody and gory. Everything had a real "pop" to it and the film is beautifully crisp and clear. There's a good bit of CG in the film, but it all looks good and is believable, well... as believable as Greek mythology can be, anyway. Special features include a handful of entertaining featurettes, including one on the mythology the film was based upon, one on Director Tarsem Singh's vision for the film, a graphic novel based on Immortals, a digital copy of the film, and a nice handful of Deleted Scenes, with Alternate Opening and Endings.
Overall, Immortals is a good action flick and a fun popcorn movie. The acting is excellent and quite believable, with Mickey Rourke as a fierce Hyperion and Henry Cavill bringing sexy back to the demi-gods. Check it out for a fun movie night.
