Immortals (2011)

Written by Gimly on July 26, 2020

Everyone talks about how Immortals is a 300 ripoff, and don't get me wrong, it absolutely is, but I haven't yet seen anyone talk about how it's also a bit of a God of War ripoff.

I'm actually quite fond of historically-set mythology films, but I don't believe the problem with Immortals isn't the setting or the genre, it's the motivation behind its being made the way it was. The 300 movie exists to be an adaptation of the 300 comic book, the Immortals movie exists because the 300 movie made money. (Don't get me wrong, I know that the real motivation behind both these, and of any other studio film, is money. But someone involved somewhere has to want more from their movie than that. And Immortals doesn't give me the vibe that anyone did).

I can handle Immortals doing what 300 does. Hell, if enough people rip an idea off over a long enough period of time, in movies, we call that a genre. My issue is that it only exists to do what 300 did, yet it does all of it so much worse. There are maybe two fights in Immortals that last for longer than 30 seconds, even with all that slow-mo stretching the runtime, and neither are filmed as well as the ones in 300. It's nowhere near as fun, it's not superior in any technical category, it's harder to tell what the fuck is going on. Even the acting, which is NOT 300's strong suit, is worse here than it is there. There were maybe flashes where you could glimpse a cohesive idea that desired to form, but it never even got close.

Final rating:★★ - Had some things that appeal to me, but a poor finished product.