Sunday 18 November 2012

The Immortals

The best film of the week by a distance was The Lady which I will leave to the end. The first film therefore is Immortals the 20011 mythical story. The setting is a war between Immortals in which those who subsequently calls themselves Gods and those defeated, the Titans are imprisoned within a mountain.



The baddie is played by Mickey Rourke as Hyperion who has learned of the existence of a magic bow which can release the Titans from their imprisonment and help him take control of the known human world. He sets off to capture the virgin oracle Phaedra so she can help find the bow as part of her knowledge of his future.



Meanwhile in a village located on a mountainous cliff overlooking the sea, a peasant boy/young man, Theseus, with a single parent mother has been trained as a warrior by an old man played by the actor John Hurt who if I have understood directly is also the top God Zeus who is training the young man to become the saviour of human kind against the wicked Hyperion. There is a conflict between this involvement of Zeus and his stricture on pain of death to other Gods including his daughter, Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, that they should not intervene to help human kind against Hyperion because he believes that if he has the will Theseus will overcome Hyperion.



The problem arises when Athenian soldiers arrive to move the villagers away from the forces of Hyperion but leave the peasants to make their own way after the others have left with escort. Theseus protests and attacks one of the soldiers, Lysander for being offensive towards his mother and the other peasants. This soldier is demoted and told to help with escorting the rest of the village but rebels, escapes and goes to join Hyperion telling him about the villages and its remaining people. Hyperion attacks the village, the mother of Theseus is skilled and Theses shows such valour that he is not killed but taken prisoner to work in the Salt Mines. On his journey he meets up with party bring the virgin Oracle and her three assistants to Hyperion after their capture. All four ladies pretend to be the Oracle. With the help of the three others the Oracle escapes with Theseus and other prisoners including a thief called Stavros who proves his valour later. The problem is that the Oracle has a vision which shows Theseus bring the magical bow to Hyperion and swearing his allegiance.



It is the Oracle who persuades Theseus who like Hyperion has no belief in the Gods or his mother’s religion that he should return to the village to give her a religious burial. This he does but is attacked by the Minotaur a henchman of Hyperion who wears a metal mask of a bull. There are two development of significance in this part of the film. First Theseus discovers the Magical Bow which help him to destroy the forces of Hyperion sent to capture the Oracle as much as him after it is discovered that she is not among the three women captured. They are tortured, abused and killed imprisoned inside the metal cast of a bull. Secondly Poseidon helps Theseus and the Oracle escape and make use of a boat to get to Mount Tartarus and the Kingdom of the Hellenics to warn their monarch of what Hyperion is planning as seen by the Oracle.



Meanwhile the Oracle has given her virginity to Theseus and conceives his son when they return to her temple so he can recover from the wounds from his battle with the Minotaur. The couple are then lured into an ambush where in the fight he loses the magical bow which is taken to Hyperion massed with his forces outside the citadel stronghold of the Hellenics. It is at this point that Ares the God of War supported by Athena intervenes to ensure that Theseus and the Oracle survives.



The penultimate sections of the film involve two battles of good against evil. First Hyperion uses the bow to release the Titans who have been held within Mount Tartarus but Zeus and the other Gods have been prepared to do battle as had before. However Zeus has kept his word and destroy Ares for intervening which is a big mistake



The King of Hellenics believes that it is possible to negotiate peace Hyperion as this results in only Zeus and his daughter who he appears to have forgiven and who appears to be immortally wounded at one point to escape as they bring the mountain down.



Hyperion has also used the bow to destroy he one entrance tunnel through the mountain which leads to the Hellenic City. The King believe that he can negotiate a peace with Hyperion believing that the conflict is between the Hyperion and the Athenians and disregards the warnings of Theseus and the Oracle. Fortunately Hyperion is aware of foresight of the Oracle and demands that Theseus should represent the King at the negotiation. He offers Theseus place at his side as together they would be able to conquer the world but Theseus rejects the offer and when the entrance to the citadel falls it is he who rallies the panicking troops to defend the city despite the great difference in the sizes of the forces. The King is killed but Theseus and Hyperion fight to their respective deaths. Just when it looks as the might of Hyperion’s forces will overcome the city forces, Zeus and Athena depart the collapsing mountain, together with the souls of Theseus to the heavens. The mountain engulfs the advancing enemy killing many and causing the remainder to flee. The city and human kind is saved through sacrifice of Theseus. He is honoured and the film ends as his son Acamus is being tutored by Zeus again as the old man that one day like his father he too will need to fight to save humanity and the sky is filled with the Gods and the Titans fighting again suggesting a sequel!

No comments:

Post a Comment