Okay, so last night I posted the first trailer for Tarsem Singh’s Immortals and in the span of about 12 hours the comments from users were not kind. Based on their description the quotes on the poster wouldn’t exactly be a selling point as you can see with the image to the right.
“Awful,” “put together in quite a hurry,” “completely tanked,” “looks like 300 meets Clash of the Titans,” “CGI looks awful,” “I don’t hold out much hope for a story,” “I didn’t mind it, and then Cavill opened his mouth,” “the background of these scenes are so like 300 it makes me sick,” “Frieda Pinto is bringing the Miral curse to this film with another uninspiring performance,” “This trailer was… not perfect,” “Average,” “Cheesy trailer,” “Looks very low budget” and “Does not look good” is pretty much the verdict from the commenters with a few comments sprinkled in from people that actually liked what they saw.
I have to say, I was shocked. There were some mixed responses to the posters when they debuted, but the comments were generally positive, one person even saying, “This is the Greek Gods Movie We’ve all been waiting for and just don’t know it.” Is that true? Do people just not know it?
I had no opinion until a few minutes ago. I hadn’t watched the trailer. I didn’t want to watch the trailer. Could it possibly be as bad as people were saying? I had to find out for myself…
I watched…
My immediate response is to say the acting looks terrible, the Sistine Chapel-esque battle in the sky looks amazing and the rest… I’ll get to the rest.
First, what surprised me the most was the sparse nature of it. I guess I expected something more mainstream even though Tarsem has always had a unique approach to visuals, very angular and minimalistic at times with bright colors working opposite one another, telling the story just as much as the narrative. He has apparently done away with color though, virtually all of it has been drained from the images we’re shown. The problem is we don’t know if this brown and murky slog with plates of gold is all that’s offered. If so, then we are probably looking at a film that will look like it was predominantly shot on a sound stage with massive amounts of green screen. That is something I’m hoping won’t be the case.
I’m also hoping this was a trailer with unfinished effects, because…
This shot can’t be finished. The falling of the god looks like it was digitally inserted into a plastic miniature set.
I also can’t lie, the helmet Mickey Rourke is wearing looks… strange. Vince at FilmDrunk wrote that it “looks [as] if the bunny from Donnie Darko turned into a snap dragon and opened up to reveal Mickey Rourke’s face.” One of his commenters wrote, “Mickey Rourke wears that hat as a trophy after he cut it out of the girl from Teeth.” Both descriptions are funny and both are indisputable.
I bounced around the Internet looking for other comments and the negativity pretty much continued everywhere I went. Many pointing to the acting of Cavill and Pinto as sticking points and then there was this one from over at Awards Daily:
The shot with the arrows right at the end of the trailer is lifted straight out of House of Flying Daggers. It’s like exactly the same. What a shame that an impressive detail from a great film has been stolen so it can be appreciated by a larger, dumber audience in a larger, dumber film. Pissed.
Somehow I’m not surprised the video clip from House of Flying Daggers I’ve included was just uploaded today, and yes, it’s virtually the exact same scene as featured in the Immortals trailer. Yet, beyond that comparison, I think the second half of that comment also speaks to a potential misconception we all may have had about this movie going in and one the $115 million price tag muddies as well.
Based on what I see, I see another Tarsem Singh film only this one is disguised as a major studio blockbuster. And in that deception much of what we are used to from Tarsem was lost. Hints can be seen in some of the set dressing and shots, but otherwise this is trying to sell action, action, action. The thing is, Tarsem has too impressive a visual eye and is too good a storyteller for this to be representative of the final product. I have to assume something has been lost in the translation as Relativity is probably trying to sell a typical blockbuster sword and sandals epic even though the film is actually another Tarsem Singh film meant for the art house sect.
But I can’t sugar coat it, this is me being optimistic and hopeful because I can’t say I necessary like what I see so far and if I wasn’t familiar with the director I would be far less optimistic. The acting on display in particular scares me. But I also have to admit Immortals does not look like your average sword and sandals feature. There is something unique here and that gives me hope. Crazy hats, stories of the gods, Tarsem’s minimalistic set design and battles waged in the heavens sound particularly appealing to me. Relativity seems to have tried to vomit all of that into the very first glimpse any of us have had at this film in an attempt to get story and spectacle across in two minutes, six months before the film hits theaters. It obviously hasn’t worked too well.
I Am Rogue has posted a short interview with Tarsem, discussing the trailer. The interview was posted yesterday in response to a bootleg version of the trailer that was running around the Internet and based on some of his comments I get the feeling the idea this was an unfinished trailer is rather spot on. As far as the film goes, I remain optimistic and hoping for the best. Had the small bits of acting in the trailer been better the response may have been better as well, but as it sits I think people are going to be wary.
Have a watch:
