This Henry Cavill Fantasy Film Brought the Gods to Life 15 Years Before ‘The Odyssey’

Ahead of the release of Christopher Nolan's blockbuster adaptation "The Odyssey," Collider is spotlighting 2011's "Immortals," a Henry Cavill film that reimagined Greek mythology on screen 15 years earlier. Directed by Tarsem Singh on an $80 million budget, the film starred Cavill alongside Mickey Rourke and pursued a distinctive visual style blending Renaissance-style painterly imagery with stylised, brutal action, offering a striking counterpoint to more conventional mythological epics as audience interest in Greek myth returns to the big screen.

Singh's "Immortals" departed sharply from classical, romanticised depictions of Greek myth, portraying the Titans as ash-covered, wild-eyed prisoners rather than sculpted heroic figures, and drawing on the same modern-art-influenced aesthetic he used in his 2000 horror film "The Cell." Costume designer Eiko Ishioka's elaborate creations, alongside graphic, blood-heavy fight sequences, defined the film's identity more than its loosely told, largely invented story of the peasant Theseus battling the tyrant Hyperion. Critics were largely unimpressed on release, with Roger Ebert famously calling it "the best-looking awful movie you will ever see," though the article argues the film remains a visually spectacular, underappreciated title worth rediscovering on streaming.