Immortals (2011)

4/5

Tarsem's Immortals took me by surprise. I was initially excited to see it, after enjoying Tarsem's previous film The Fall, but my desire waned after countless negative reviews piled up. I almost entirely gave up on it until I found it on Netflix the other day. I must have watched it at the last possible moment because the next day it was no longer available for streaming. And I'm glad I did.

The plot is straightforward and seems to be made entirely for people who want nothing more than an action movie: King Hyperion (Rourke) steals the Epirus Bow so that he can use it to release the Titans from their prison beneath Mount Tartarus. Theseus (Cavill), a peasant who witnesses his mother's death, is the only one courageous enough to fight back. Zeus (Evans) believes so much in the humans' ability to combat evil that he threatens all the other gods on Olympus with death if they attempt to come to the aid of the humans.

As I said: simple, uninspired. But something about it stirs up excitement and emotion, and I'm betting it's all that Greek mythology. Tarsem gives us a striking visual oasis, with eye-catching costumes, luscious landscapes, and seamless computer graphics. Add in some of the coolest fighting I've seen, and who cares about the story anymore? Tarsem defies the current trend in crappy modern action flicks of fast cuts and shaky camera movements. Instead he uses "bullet time" photography, and he uses it wonderfully, pausing on sweet moves before speeding up for some fast action. The editing is tight and keeps the film lean and tense.

As for the negatives, the acting is passable (although that is honestly better than what I was expecting) and the unnecessary voice-over doesn't detract too much from the film (but that's probably because there isn't much of it). For what it aims to be, it's pretty close to perfection. I highly recommend this movie for anyone who wants a cleanly-shot and strikingly beautiful mindless action film.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1600195/

The Fall (2006)

4/5

Tarsem's The Fall is a jaw-dropping visual feast. The colors and compositions, the costumes and locales--all work together to compose an unforgettable tapestry of images. The aesthetics in and of themselves are enough to spellbind any viewer, but the music integrates perfectly with the eye candy to create an even more breathtaking experience. The plot, however, could use some work.

It follows a depressed stuntman in a Los Angeles hospital with a young Romanian girl who broke her arm. In order to get morphine and commit suicide, he manipulates her by telling an epic story of five warriors attempting to kill the evil General Odious. The story he tells, and the movie's story overall, is exciting in the beginning, then seems to flounder and sag before eventually ending as conventionally as possible. Throughout the course of the movie, you realize that not much really happened and his story wasn't very good. (I did, however, appreciate the seemingly tacked-on ending and what it said about movies specifically and storytelling in general.)

Catinca Untaru plays the 5 year old with remarkable natural talent. You forget that she is acting at all, and that there are other people in the story. She steals every scene in the movie. The acting by the minor characters was somewhat flat, although that may simply be underdeveloped characters. And I thought the editing could use a lot of work; the movie needed to be half an hour shorter. Overall though, the visuals are enough for me to recommend this film to true fans of the cinema.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460791/