Mirror Mirror: written by Marc Klein, Jason Keller, and Melisa Wallack; directed by Tarsem Singh; starring Julia Roberts (The Queen), Lily Collins (Snow White), Armie Hammer (Prince Alcott), Nathan Lane (Brighton), and Sean Bean (The King) (2012): Mostly diverting action-comedy based on the Snow White story. Lily Collins (daughter of Phil) has some Abe Vigoda-esque eyebrows as Snow White, though.
The set design and costuming are pretty, and pretty impressive: Tarsem Singh loves making things look baroque. If the script were wittier, the whole thing might actually be a minor classic. It's certainly much lighter on its feet than the same year's other Snow White movie, the more epic Snow White and the Huntsman, and Collins is a much more charming presence than the other movie's Kristen Stewart. The movie's tone takes its cues from The Princess Bride, not Lord of the Rings.
Julia Roberts seems to be having fun being bad and doing a bad English accent. No one else even tries to do an accent. Unlike Snow White and the Huntsman, Mirror Mirror uses actual dwarves and not CGI-squashed actors. Armie Hammer is actually pretty funny as the Prince, and Nathan Lane gets about all the laughs out of his lines that he can.
Singh's visual inventiveness is mostly kept under control, though there's a fascinating sequence involving giant, homicidal marionettes that really is quite magical and odd. It's like something from a Guillermo del Toro movie. Lightly recommended.
Immortals: written by Charley and Vlas Parlapanides; directed by Tarsem Singh; starring Henry Cavill (Theseus), Mickey Rourke (King Hyperion), Stephen Dorff (Stavros), Freida Pinto (Phaedra), John Hurt (Old Man), and Luke Evans (Zeus) (2011): Depending on your POV, Tarsem Singh (The Cell) is either a visionary filmmaker who conjures up striking visuals or a guy who can turn any movie into a Chanel Number 5 advertisement. I think he's sorta both.
There are striking moments in Immortals, and there are moments of pure hooey from a visual standpoint. Note that I don't talk about characterization or plot. While the story makes marginally more sense than the remake of Clash of the Titans, the emphasis is on 'marginally.' And God help you if you try to learn Greek mythology from this movie, much less Greek history.
Theseus (Henry Cavill, practicing to play Superman in next year's Man of Steel) gets charged by Zeus with saving humanity (or maybe just Greece) from King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke, hilariously miscast in a period piece). There's a magic bow with which Hyperion can raise the Titans, who will then destroy the gods and humanity both. Or something. Why someone didn't just destroy this bow (or destroy the Titans, for that matter) is one of those questions that will occur to you as you watch the film. There won't be an answer.
The Titans are caged under Mount Tartarus, the interior of which seems to have been designed by the people who brought you Gotham City in Batman Returns. Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire, Rise of the Planet of the Apes) plays Phaedra, a virgin Oracle who's seen a terrible future. At one point, Phaedra and her fellow oracles dress in what appear to lampshades. Mickey Rourke chews the scenery. The battle between Theseus and the Minotaur -- the one that pretty much defines him in actual mythology -- is treated here as something of a throwaway. So why call him Theseus? I don't know.
Nothing bears much relation to actual mythology, and the gods wear some pretty funny-looking hats. There's violence and some nudity. There's slow-motion fighting. I don't think this is in any way a good movie, but I stayed interested most of the time, for all its absurdities and missteps. Lightly recommended.
