While it can be tough finding reasons to drag yourself out for movies this week if you're not a teenage girl (Twilight) or a child (Arthur, Muppets) I found the time to take in the movie Immortals.  The movie was released in both 2D and 3D and I ended up seeing it in 3D which may have been the worse way to see it as in some shots the actors look like they're floating on the CGI background.

Overall the movie wasn't as bad as I expected.  My favorite reference in the movie was the Brass Bull, an execution device introduced during the reign of Draco.  While it was a bit out of its time in the movie I appreciated its inclusion as something that is oft overlooked in the world's history of capital punishment.  To be honest the movie may have underplayed the sound amplification effect of the device as accounts of the instrument suggest it was heard for miles around.

The gods are all represented in fairly unique ways as far as artistic design is concerned, not just draped in togas or festooned with full plate armor.  Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the obviously foam breastplates of the mortal soldiers which was a huge distraction for me.  They'd have been better off continuing to use re-enforced leather as they do early on rather than faking metal breastplates with foam.

This movie is most definitely a descendant of Zack Snyder's 300 though it's gorier if that's possible.  Perhaps it is best when choosing whether or not you want to see this movie if you think slow motion head explosions is something you want to see.  Snyder's influence on the style of Immortals and Spartacus seems to be entrenching an expected visual requirement upon film makers, though this movie also has touches of Julie Taymoor sprinkled throughout.  It also boasts a re-imagining of the Minotaur that explains a fanciful legend bursting from a more plausible explanation... an odd option for a movie that asserts that the gods are real.

Mickey Rourke is in the movie more than I expected as the lead villain Hyperion leader of the Heracleans who gelds his soldiers with the expectation that he will eventually repopulate the world with his seed.  He seems to have been a mixture of Ghengis Khan and Draco and... Perhaps Napoleon.  It's a bit hard to figure out where the writer was going with him other than his fixation on how important having babies is to the world.

Overall the plot is meandering and muddled but Rourke is as subdued as I've seen him recently and is fairly engaging on the screen and the violence choreography is anywhere from excellent to subpar but generally entertaining.

I rate this movie a 1.68 out of 3.14.