Birthday Movie Excursion
I know I haven’t posted lately and I have a few things to catch up on. I’ve been on vacation this past week and had a few things going on for my 42nd birthday. Last week I went to see the Lady Antebellum concert which I will be writing about soon as well as a catch up on my comic reviews. (I had one book I needed to find a way to read. Have I said how much I hate polybagged comics?) For now, I’m going to post about my second present to myself, going to see The Immortals in the theatre.
I’ve always been a fan of Greco-Roman history and mythology. Actually, it was the only Social Studies class that I ever really got into. When I saw this movie was coming out, and right near my birthday no less, I was excited to see what would come of it. It seemed like mostly a “historical” type movie as opposed to highly fantastical projects like Clash of the Titans. A group of friends went to see the movie last week but I’m working nights again so I couldn’t go. I figured I’d make a trip to the local Harkins Theatre to catch it while I was off.
The movie gets going and we start to see the main cast of the movie. Theseus is a ripped pretty boy, slightly rugged but only slightly. As things go on, we meet the gods. He’s not the aged father of the gods we are used to seeing. He looks young, probably early 20s, also ripped with a little scruff and the hint of a mustache. (He was played by Luke Evans who it seems ironically played Apollo in the remake of Clash of the Titans.) As time goes on, we see the other gods. Other than Athena, it’s all male gods who look like the cast of a Bel Ami porno and are pretty much indistinguishable from each other. (If it wasn’t for Mercury’s use of speed and Poseidon’s trident, even they wouldn’t have been recognizable. The ridiculously large headdresses worn by the gods seemed to have no identifying marks and only made them look awkward and laughable.) It’s obvious that, with the exception of Zeus, the actors playing the make gods were chosen for their pretty boy looks and not their acting abilities. Heck, of the main group of characters, the only one that showed any chest hair was Stavros who was played by Stephen Dorff (also known for his role in the Blade movie). The only name in the cast other than Dorff’s that I recognized was Mickey Rourke, who played the evil King Hyperion.
All that being said, this wasn’t a bad movie. While it never reached the expectations I had of it, there were some good points. The way they created the story of Theseus and the minotaur without any actual monsters was quite interesting. The effects of the cities built into mountains and the large scenery set-up was quite good. The battles and general background storylines were good if taken on their own. If you took the gods out of the equation or at least limited their presence more, the movie would have been much better. It might have even left more time to expand on the mortal characters more. I’m glad I went because I did enjoy it overall. I just know that a better job could have been done with it if they didn’t try so hard to make it such a fluff piece.
On a normal 5 star rating, I’d probably give it 3 1/2 stars. (I should get a graphic for that for the future.)
