Immortals is a beautiful, awesome, action packed spectacle that sticks right to the hero’s journey and creates a new(ish) tale of Greek mythology that lets the Gods go kill crazy.

Theseus is our hero and he is a common man, a bastard and the son of a whore.  Living in a cliff side province of Greece, Theseus, has made himself an expert fighter through a life long relationship with an Old Man and he becomes entangled with a potential battle between the Gods and Titans.  Creating this complication is King Hyperion who is attempting to take over Greece and release the Titans upon Earth with the Epirus Bow.  Hyperion must find the virgin oracle to lead him to the bow and Theseus becomes intertwined in her protection as he sets off to gain vengeance on King Hyperion.  Zeus has puts his faith in Theseus to stop Hyperion and has commanded the Gods not to intervene with the affairs of men; unless Hyperion achieves his goal of releasing the Titans.

The Gods will fight though, do not worry, and when they do it is extraordinary.

The brutal violence the hand to hand combat allows for here is fantastic and captured through the eye of Tarsem it is beautiful to watch.  The film’s look, effects and art direction are marvelous.  The cinematography is also beautiful and action is so masterfully directed that I can honestly say I don’t know if I have seen anything like it before and Tarsem spoils us with a wealth of God killing action for us to enjoy.  After the first appearance of the God action I figured that was all we are going to really get, but the finale is an extended hand to hand battle that will more then whet ones appetite.  The human fighting is delightfully brutal and affective as well and it is all refreshingly very R-rated.  In fact, this is the goriest movie of the year; that I have seen.  Tarsem’s use of 3D works to give the film an extra sense of depth on top of this all and it never once distorts his brilliant imagery.  The 3D is the best I have seen on a live action movie possibly since Avatar and if you are into it, it is worth the few extra bucks.

Some might bash the simple story and the mostly average dialogue, but I cared about Theseus and was rooting for him to get his vengeance.  They sort of created an original Greek mythology here, even if based on a lot recognizable characters, and Tarsem’s vision applied to these characters is a sight to be seen.  I am not going to say that there aren’t a couple of odd creative choices in clothing, a couple of weak performances and a cringe worthy moment or two, but I could careless by the end of the movie; I was having a blast.

Henry Cavill gets his first staring role here and he handles it very well.  Physically it is a breeze, as he handles the action masterfully and is quite the physical presence.  Also, as aforementioned, he certainly got me on his side and rooting for Theseus, as I think he certainly has that leading man quality a certain WB franchise is hoping for.  Mickey Rourke is fun and nasty as the almost Captain Kurtz inspired King Hyperion, as he lays waste to everything in his path.  Hyperion being ruthless and terrible, Rourke gets to chew the scenery and I had a lot of fun with him.  Freida Pinto is the weakest link of the cast, by far, and she delivers one of those cringe worthy moments I mentioned earlier.  She isn’t all bad, but she doesn’t bring a lot to the table.  Luke Evans is affective as Zeus and is as handsome and powerful as the part calls for.  Evans is quickly growing as one of my favorite actors around and hopefully this will get a lot of action fans on his side.  John Hurt plays the same part he has been for the last few years now and it is great, as always.  Stephen Dorff plays Theseus’ number two of sorts and brings a lot of energy and humor to the proceedings.  I enjoyed him quite a bit here and it is nice to see him do some good work in a big film like this.  Isabel Lucas does just enough to make us buy into Athena and Zeus’ relationship and Daniel Sharman and Kellan Lutz show off their action chops, along with Lucas, as Aries and Poseidon.

In the end, Immortals is a gorgeous and brilliantly crafted action mythology that has a lot of fun with the genre.  While its characters and story are by no means great, they do a good enough job to send us along on a classic hero’s journey with action visuals that are unlike anything you have ever seen.  Featuring, probably, the best action of the year, Tarsem, shows off what he can do if you give him a little cash and it is beautiful.  This might not be much more than fun and pretty action film but it does what it wants as good as you could ask for and that should not be discounted.

Immortals is an A-