(This review may contain spoilers).
I’ve probably mentioned before how much I like ancient mythology. The Greek myths were the original ones I enjoyed. I always read every book I could get my hands on which featured those myths. So when Immortals originally came out, I was naturally very excited.
Although this movie does use many of the characters from mythology, I couldn’t say this was accurate to the myths at all. I did like Zeus’ character in this and the close relationship he had with his daughter, but none of the other relationships between the gods are explored and I felt there were a lot of areas they could have been.
I felt the actor who played Theseus worked really well. I could really believe in him and he worked really well as a hero. It was interesting to see that Zeus refused to interfere in the affairs of mortals… a stark contrast to his mythological counterpart, who was a faithless husband who had affairs with a large number of mortal women.
Although there was quite a bit of fantasy in this movie, it was a really violent one, with scenes of torture both implied and outright shown. It definitely isn’t good viewing for people who don’t like torture-fests. While I do appreciate that some attempt was made to give Hyperion more of a background and round his character out, he was a pretty awful person even so.
Although the concept of the virgin Oracle was an interesting one, it did seem (to me) that one vision in particular wouldn’t have really worked… since I’m fairly certain there was no way it could have come about.
There were quite a few nameless characters who I found difficult to care about when they were killed. I did like Stavros as a character. His banter was amusing at times and I felt he was one of the good ones. I felt that many of the other characters didn’t get the screen time they could have, which was a shame, since they came across as kind of one-dimensional at times.
I do think Zeus was a hard character in this. I like the actor who played him, but one scene made me dislike his character a bit more. I did think that the fight scenes towards the end were pretty cool, though.
It’s a shame that no sequel exists for this movie. Personally, I would very much like to see the aftermath of the events in this.
Ink of Blood 