By Peter Stroczkowski

Theseus (Henry Caville) is having a bad day. His village has just been invaded and his mother has been brutally killed by the Heraklion army and their ruler, King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke). Hyperion seeks to take control of the world and ensure his bloodline remains immortal by finding the Epirus, a weapon forged by the God of War capable of freeing an army of Titans, who in turn will take revenge on the gods for imprisoning them.

After being jailed and tortured, Theseus is freed with the help of several other prisoners and the beautiful oracle Phaedra (Frieda Pinto), who is haunted by visions of the future in which she sees Theseus being able to turn the tide of the war. He also receives help from a disguised Zeus, who unbeknownst to Theseus, has been mentoring him his whole life. By Zeus’s own law, however, the gods are forbidden to assist humans using their power (this is found out the hard way by one of the gods down the line). Theseus embraces his destiny and makes a final effort to stop the evil king and save the world.

Director Tarsem Singh (2000’s The Cell, R.E.M.’s ‘Losing My Religion’ video) excels at combining real sets with CGI landscapes to form absolutely breathtaking scenery. The action scenes (of which there are plenty) are also brought to new levels with added post-production, particularly an extended fight scene involving the Gods and Titans. There is a plethora of violence, a smidgeon of tasteful nudity and a scene any self-respecting man will find almost to painful to witness, when one of Theseus’ countrymen defects to Hyperion’s army, he is allowed to join but is  promptly castrated so that he cannot continue his family line. With a mallet).

The film is heavily entertaining in these respects and keeps the viewer’s attention as there is little screentime where something interesting and shiny isn’t being displayed blatantly (the landscape, weaponry, special effects, fighting, Theseus’ abs, etc.) Many of the characters are also extremely likeable, which adds to the enjoyment of the film. Caville is great as the unfortunate protagonist who must accept his destiny and the Gods faith in him, while  Rourke takes the cake as the fantastically hateful Hyperion (Rourke also manages to top his role as bad guy Ivan Vanko in last year’s Iron Man 2). Even the supporting actors manage to bring a mostly positive dynamic to the film. Also, one of the guys from twilight plays Poseidon. Weird.

However, for all the eye-candy and visual strength the film possesses, the story aspect is, well, a different story. Underwhelming, full of holes and feeling entirely static, the film’s plot is established within the first half-hour and the rest is easily predicted. Furthermore, through the duration of the film, even with the changes in scene and location, and the grandiose CGI structures, it felt as if all of the film’s events took place within a half-mile from each other, adding an unintentionally stifling and claustrophobic atmosphere in which the pacing of the story seems like it never moves forward.

The viewer will undoubtedly find much of the film’s backtracking totally unecessary. It turns out the Epirus bow was hidden in the tomb down the road from Theseus’ house. Not exactly an epic quest. The characters, though likeable and entertaining, are mostly disposable. The authors of the script must have felt the same way, because they kill off most of them. Thankfully, for all of its shortcomings, Immortals is easy to follow and any moviegoers who found last year’s Clash of the Titans remake to be too challenging can rest easy: Immortals makes it seem like Inception.