The good news for fans of director Tarsem's unique visual style, which made "The Cell" and especially the fantastic "The Fall" such unforgettable pieces of eye candy, is: he transferred it into this project without losing it in favor of a more CGI based look, like "300". Here every scene that could possibly be shot in a real set was filmed exactly like that. Of course that leaves the wide shots for CGI, but the smaller locations feel real and still have this visually bizarre and unique style Tarsem's known for.

The result is one of the visually most pleasing films of recent years, with wonderfully odd masks, armors, weapons and locations. The 3D effects are also among the most convincing since "Avatar".

The story of Theseus' very gory and spectacular war against the sadistic king Hyperion uses known Greek myths, like the Minotaur's labyrinth, only as side quests. The bad news is: The oddly slow moving film (at least in the scenes that don't end in spectacularly severed heads) does not manage to come up with an emotionally enthralling story. That's easy to ignore while you're hypnotized by the incredibly beautiful visuals, but leaves you a bit indifferent to the things going on on-screen.

There are still plenty of spectacular scenery and battles, a great showdown and an unique production design. Henry Cavill, next year's Superman, is a convincing even if not outstanding leading man, Freida Pinto a breathtakingly beautiful seer and Luke Evans a nicely angry yet gracious Zeus. Mickey Rourke doesn't even have to do much to be a convincingly disgusting sadist king.

That doesn't leave much more to wish for than a little less distance between the beautiful scenery and the audience. But as it is, it's a little like watching a gorgeous painting that leaves you emotionally cold. Everyone even remotely interested in this should still see it on the big screen, of course. Some scenes, like the unbelievably stunning final shot, are so breathtaking that you want to freeze the frame.

7 out of 10 chain whips.