There are no Latino characters in this film, which I expected as this film takes place in Greece. The film is in 3D and stars Micky Rourke (The Wrestler, Iron Man 2) as King Hyperion, Henry Cavill (The Tudors) as Theseus, John Hurt (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2) as Old Man, Luke Evans as (Clash of the Titans) Zues, Frida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire) as Phaedra the Oracle, and Stephen Dorff (Public Enemies) as Stravros.
Written by Greek-American brothers Charley and Vlas Parlapanides and produced by Gianni Nunnari and Mark Canton, both who are behind the production of 300 (2006); I knew there would be some fantastical elements to the film. However, it was the director Tarsem Singh that won me over. Singh has created two of the most visually stunning films I’ve seen in a really long time: The Cell (with Jennifer Lopez and Vincent D’Onofrio) and The Fall (with Lee Pace). I also knew that having a director of Color working on this film means that the racism and ethnocentrism that we saw in 300 (all the people of Color were evil sends a very specific message) is not going to fly so easily. And it didn’t.
Although the cast is primarily racially white to help us believe this is taking place in Greece, there is not an exclusion of faces of Color as many are sprinkled throughout the film. Not only are many of the men of Color in the army, some of them even have speaking roles. We see the most diversity in the High Priestesses and Oracle. Frida Pinto as the virgin Oracle is protected by three other women who are High Priestesses and include a Black (Ayisha Issa), Asian (Mercedes Legget) and Native woman (Kaniehtiio Horn). The Hight Priestesses are to protect the virgin Oracle and confuse people into know which one is the actual Oracle. The women are powerful, have formed a spiritual and emotional bond with one another, and are also loyal. They were by far the highlight of the film for me as a viewer as they are some of the main women with speaking roles in the film (other women in the film that speak are Theseus’ mom and Athena both who are killed).
