Trailer #2: "Immortals"

After a disappointing first trailer, Legendary Pictures has released a second full look at their upcoming stylized Greek mythology epic Immortals. Unfortunately, little has improved. To be fair, the scenes here do seem to have more visual variety, and that one bit of slow-down-speed-up action was admittedly well done. But my problem comes down to one simple factor: the color scheme. As I said after the first trailer, director Tarsem is at the very least a genius of visual design, and his imagination always includes a wide array of colors. Here, almost everything is trying to adhere to the 300 look: shades of beige, brown, and gold. The effect actually robs the film of any visual wow-factor. That Sistine Chapel-esque fight scene would look so much better if the color scheme actually made room for brighter colors, instead of smothering everything in the glow of the above-mentioned trio. Gold is a powerful, magnificent color, yet here it feels overused to the point of being mundane. Even other colors, like red, somehow seem to lack their usual fire. I'm not even going to touch on the acting, which seems either competent or bombastic. Unless the film turns out to be a surprisingly decent action/adventure flick, the most I can hope for is that it gives Tarsem some clout in Hollywood, allowing him to pursue more projects in the vein of The Fall.