Immortals

That was yummy! A film doomed to the most mixed reviews. For some it will be an insufficiently stylized and insufficiently action-packed copy 300, for others, a way too stylised and an unfaithful take on ancient mythology, and yet for others, a screenwriting mess without any clear motifs and relationships… or, it’s really easy to criticise Immortals. But if I had to criticise one thing, it would be that, compared to his previous film, Tarsem Singh has taken a bit too big a step towards the average audience. But despite that, he’s made a very original and stylised film that I refuse to call average, even if I was forced to. Visually, it’s one of the most intoxicating films from last year and I’m sorry to have missed it in the cinema. (15/01/2012)

Fortunately, it is different than 300, and much more mature and refined in terms of mythological storytelling. What's bad about it are the exact moments when it leaves Tarsem Singh's quirky theatricality and tries to sell it as a simple mainstream product for fans of Snyder's bicep circus. In any case, this amphitheater (what some refer to as poorness and lack of epicity, I refer to as grip and intentional "scenicity") provides a fairly solid portion of aesthetic pleasure from a unique view of ancient mythology (although it uses it as a purposeful texture, it is able, unlike most similar films, to create the appearance of a coherent universality - paradoxically, if you take 300, Clash of the Titans and Troy, Immortals corresponds to the ancient prefiguration least). I enjoyed it, sometimes very much. (24/11/2011)

I don't know if my rating is completely truthful and objective. I sat in the cinema with my mouth almost gaping, and after the show it was full of criticism again. It was very nice to watch and all the effects and beautiful shots were very appealing. My ears can't complain either. The cast was very good, but for a while Henry Cavill didn't sit well with me. Plot-wise, I guess you could read a lot into it as well. But what I was hurting for the most was some sort of climax, which the viewer desperately needs in a film like this. This way I felt that nothing much was happening. A weaker 4 stars. (05/12/2011)

Excellent. A precisely constructed heroic story (but the only things it has to do with Greek mythology are the names and the setting), good and bloody and bombastic. A perfect atmosphere and action, too. Mickey Rourke is great, Superman is pretty well on top of things and even Zeus is cool. A visual banquet. (13/09/2013)

Immortals doesn’t have a story that would take it anywhere or characters that would give it life. And for every clothed female body, there are thirty half-naked men. However, the film is satisfyingly bloody, the concept of the Gods and their home above the clouds doesn’t look like something out of a cheap porn flick (see the new Clash of the Titans), and the lavish sets border on design genius. I wasn’t bored, nor was I in ecstasy. I didn’t feel sorry for anyone, nor did I keep my fingers crossed for anyone, but I still enthusiastically watched it to the end. Spectacular dilettantish emptiness. (14/11/2011)