Studio: Fox
Disc/Transfer Specifications: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1; Region 1 (U.S.) Release Tested
MPAA Rating: R
Tested Audio Track: English Dolby Digital 5.1
Director: Tarsem Singh
Starring Cast: Mickey Rourke, Henry Cavill, John Hurt
THE GODS NEED A HERO.
PLOT ANALYSIS:
Think of Tarsem Singh’s
Immortals like
Clash of the Titans on meth – or perhaps a kick-***, fight sequence-endowed hybrid of
Clash and
The Mummy remake. I really wanted to see this theatrically, after being impressed – if not awe struck and knocked over – by the remake of
Clash of the Titans. It seems Hollywood, perhaps ever since
Gladiator, has been fascinated with exploring the myths and legends of the gods and mortals that worshipped them in ancient Greece and/or Rome, and as technology has advanced, so has the ability to bring these ancient clashes and mythical (in some cases) civilizations to startling life on the big screen. However, some critics feel that Singh’s
Immortals simply pushed this envelope way too far – indeed, the battle and fight sequences here are over the top, violent, hyper-realized in slow motion techniques (thanks to the producing team of
300) and blood soaked to say the very least. After viewing the film on standard DVD last night, I tend to agree – I am sure the ancient battles (whether they were between mortal man and mythical god creatures or amongst their own civilizations) were bloody and violent, but the action on display here was just wildly dramatic. I mean, we have the hero lead flying through the air delivering Kung Fu-like kickdrops to his adversaries while tossing foot-long spears into the heads and necks of enemy troops yards away in the distance. Then, we have the main villain role played by Mickey Rourke, who takes his “Whiplash” performance from
Iron Man 2 to an entirely different, psycho and downright frightening level with a degree of barbarism and cruelty that even scared me…well, if I were living in that time period…
Much of
Immortals plays like
Clash of the Titans, and the premise here is that our lead is, again, a bent-on-vengeance young man looking to kill Rourke’s evil king character for his warriors attacking his coastal village and ultimately slicing his mother’s throat as he watched. Driven by rage, this kid kicks the asses of everyone he comes in contact with – a la
Braveheart, Gladiator, The Patriot et al – working his way through the ranks after Rourke, but the theatrics and action setpieces really don’t fit this time and place in history. I mean, as I said, this kid is kicking more asses than Sam Worthington ever did in
Titans, and doing it with almost magical, fluid movements; the final fight sequence between him and Rourke is nail biting in excitement and tension, as we can feel every punch Rourke cruelly delivers on our hero’s bloody body and vice-versa.
Speaking of the final fight sequence, what ends up happening is Rourke and our hero arrange for a battle to ensue just above the ancient temple where the titans are buried in a tomb-like chamber – and this is where
Immortals suddenly becomes Stephen Sommers’
Mummy, with crusty, flaky dried old “titans” coming to life to fight Zeus, Athena, Poseidon and the other gods that have come down from the clouds of Olympus to help the hero and his warriors against Rourke and his unleashed titans. While the gods wipe the floor with the rampaging titans for the most part in an exciting fight sequence between the superpowers, they are ultimately beaten, most of them killed. Incidentally, as a side note, the dude who plays Zeus in this played Zeus’ other son Apollo in
Clash of the Titans – it was a different take on the legendary god, without the flowing curled beard and other features.
Alas, a hand to hand combat scene breaks out between Rourke and the kid who got in his way of obtaining a special bow and arrow that possesses great power – as I mentioned, the sequence is very engaging and rivals nearly any of the hero-villain sets of the comic films out there. By the time you’re done watching it, you’re exhausted from witnessing these guys beating the ever-loving snot out of one another; in fact, it makes you wonder how they could even survive such horrendous beatings.
Immortals wasn’t bad – but there was something about it that just didn’t allow me to enjoy it as much as
Clash of the Titans and I’m not quite sure what that was. It is definitely worth a rental spin.
VIDEO QUALITY ANALYSIS:
Unable to obtain a Blu-ray copy of
Immortals, I was still satisfied with the upconverted image of the DVD transfer, with a clean anamorphic image that filled my display sans letterboxing (based on the aspect ratio). Blacks and shadow detail were spot-on, faces were realistic in tone and color, there was no noise or compression artifacting that I could detect and this was just a solid standard DVD transfer from start to finish.
AUDIO QUALITY ANALYSIS:
Where this title really stood out was with the audio – wow. Holy ****. Did I get the point across? This standard-issue Dolby Digital 5.1 mix was nothing of the sort – from the beginning, this track was ridiculously aggressive in its mastering, with an overall authoring level that required me to continuously lower my Onkyo receiver’s master volume…something I never find myself doing. Dialogue was crisp, but most of all, the effects and raw, sheer
heft of this track was nothing short of amazing – walls of bombastic sound washed over the soundstage from front to back with aggressive panning when called upon, in addition to subtle moments of gentle surround activity that really impressed me. I don’t know how the Master Audio track on the Blu-ray fared compared to this, but I loved the Dolby Digital track on the DVD.
Let’s discuss
Immortals!
