It’s Gods vs. Mortals, and It Isn’t Pretty
By MEKADO MURPHY NY Times
Published: October 28, 2011
THE gods may not be crazy, but they can certainly get a little angry. Some of their fury is on display when their turf is threatened in the film “Immortals,” a new interpretation of Greek mythology that blends dramatic landscapes with aggressive action, all in 3-D.
In this scene from "Immortals," the god Ares (Daniel Sharman) uses his hammer to defeat some mortal enemies.
The film, one of a bevy of pictures with the memorable release date 11-11-11, is the latest from Tarsem Singh, the director behind the psychological thriller “The Cell” (2000) and the stylized adventure fantasy “The Fall” (2006).
“Immortals” tells the story of Hyperion (Mickey Rourke), an evil king who wreaks havoc throughout Greece in his search for the Epirus Bow, a weapon that would help him defeat the gods of Olympus and reign over humankind. He is challenged by Theseus (Henry Cavill), a stonemason who leads a small group of warriors in an uprising.
Two of the producers, Mark Canton and Gianni Nunnari, served the same role on “300” (directed by Zack Snyder), the historical action yarn with which “Immortals” is most likely to draw comparisons. While they are certainly hoping to mirror the box-office success of “300” ($456 million worldwide), they sought to give “Immortals” a look distinct from that film by bringing in Mr. Singh.
He has used contemporary style to pay homage to bygone eras before, whether for music videos (R.E.M.) or commercials (Pepsi). This time Mr. Singh channeled the fine arts for “Immortals.”
“Everyone is making comic strips, basically,” Mr. Singh said, referring to the style of many large-budget action films. “I was wondering what it would look like if I took ideas from paintings instead. I thought if I looked at Renaissance paintings, I could use that as the inspiration as opposed to a comic strip.” He pointed to the work of Caravaggio as a particular inspiration. That artist’s use of individuals arranged in tableau inspired some of the battle scenes.
Similarly, with the film’s landscape shots, including an image of the gods looking down from Olympus, Mr. Singh wanted to reinterpret historical artworks and make them the basis for the backgrounds. This led to a look that was more hyper-real than photorealistic.
THE WRATH OF THE GODS
Picturesque views aside, “Immortals” is most likely to be remembered for the splattering of blood across those landscapes.
One action sequence notable for a creative use of violence involves a god clashing viciously with humans. Though forbidden to interfere with mortal fights, Ares (Daniel Sharman) breaks the rule to rescue Theseus from Hyperion’s legions. He takes his hammer and moves quickly from soldier to soldier, smashing their heads before they have time to react. The action is slowed down, creating a burst of color that looks almost like a flower blooming, if that flower were made of brains and cartilage.
“I wondered, how do you make a world in which gods and humans can fight?” Mr. Singh said. “You have to make your own rules.”
He proceeded on the theory that the gods’ version of real time would move so fast that humans would be virtually stationary. In battling a god, humans wouldn’t stand a chance. But Mr. Singh also wanted to distinguish this look from that of “300,” in which the action was sped up, then slowed down. “There was a commercial I did for Polaroid about 18 years ago that had that effect,” said Mr. Singh, who is 50. “Then I did a Nike commercial with it and thought it was a dead topic after that. It’s very cheap to do. And I wasn’t interested in doing it again.”
Instead, the production team opted for an effect that would blend two speeds in one frame.
“There are multiple elements in this sequence,” the visual-effects supervisor, Raymond Gieringer, said. “We had to separate each one of them out to be able to have Ares in our version of real time while everybody else was in slow motion.”
That slow motion applies to the complex explosion of the heads in the scene. To achieve this Mr. Gieringer worked with the Montreal effects company BarXseven. They spent months creating the simulations for the head explosions, building a biologically accurate re-creation of the bone, cartilage and gore involved. Despite the carnage the effect is as artful as it is graphic.
Thank you to Charles Parlapanides
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