A power crazed king named Hyperion invades the land seeking a magical bow, a bow capable of freeing the immortal Titans that remain buried underground having been cast out from the god realm of Olympus. Mortal hero Theseus is blessed by the gods in a bid to turn the tide and defeat Hyperion.
I don't understand Hollywood's lack of commitment with Greek myths; these are some epic stories, yet the resulting screenplays are always garbled and awkward.
It could be argued that this film follows events after the myth of the Titans enslavement, but it remains fact that Hyperion was an immortal also, and in fact fathered many of the Titans (he was the Titan god of light).
Characters come and go without much sentiment, while better casting has been seen in Clash of the Titans (Liam Neeson made a much better Zeus!).
So what IS good? Director Tarsem has come a long way from the trippy The Cell, making something visually appealing and coherent, and coupled with good production does make for inventive costume designs and bloody battles that strive for mythic imagery.
Ultimately, I did like the fantasy imagery and the fight scenes were impressive, but characters were mostly throw-aways and little respect was given to the source material.
I loved 300 and am generally a fan of swords and sandals stuff but was pretty dissapointed by this. I never expect Hollywood to pay any respect to the original stories of anything they remake (see Achillies "cousin" patroclus etc) but i would prefer that they make a good film. While 300 was very stylised they managed to keep it gritty. Immortals was, well shiny, and classical re tellings should not look like they just came out of the box.
ReplyDeleteThey only cool new looking scene was the slo-mo "desend from the heavens and protect the hero by smashing heads in with a war hammer" bit. That made me sit up in my seat. The rest, meh.