Clash of the Titans (2010) (PG-13)

Clash of the Titans (2010) (PG-13)

Directed by Louis Leterrier

Starring: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Jason Flemyng

Daughter Says:

Clash of the Titans (The 2010 version) is, well how to put it nicely, a better disaster than the original 1981 version. Now I’ve never seen the 1981 version, but I hear it’s as cheesy as Jason and the Argonauts, which I’ve seen part of and hated. This newer version of Clash of Titans is better than the older version, but it’s not a great movie.

I’m pretty sure every one knows the basics to this movie, but if you don’t, it’s like all the other god versus human stories you hear. Humans don't want to be ruled, but the Gods don’t want to give them control. Hades tricks Zeus into being mean to the humans and it blows up in everyone’s faces. But who’s there to save them? None other than Percy Jackson. Oh wait, that’s the wrong movie. It’s Perseus, a demi-god. His father is Zeus and his mother, well, is human. No need to be specific.

Now to get into the general disaster of this movie. This version of Clash of the Titans is better because it has better acting. I mean who didn’t already fall in love with Sam Worthington in Avatar or in Terminator Salvation. He rocked those movies and he rocked this one. He could seriously pull off being a god much better than Liam Neeson who happened to be Zeus. Another great actor in this movie was Ralph Fiennes. But he’s always great plus he got to play an evil man again. He can be such an awesome creeper. I still get chills thinking about all the evil things he pulls off with the best script.

Now for the bad part. You’d think with the great technology we have today that they’d try to do their best. Or not. Lord of the Rings pulled off the newest technology amazingly, so why couldn’t Clash of the Titans? I guess they just didn’t have such a brilliant set up as Lord of the Rings did. It felt like the effects artist decided just to go crazy and show off all he knew. It gave me the impression that they just wanted to show up the older version with all their newer technology. Another problem I had with this movie is that I had a really hard time telling apart everyone. The only people I got straight were the women, Perseus, Zeus, and Hades; and that’s just because they had such unique looks. The soldiers and the king looked alike so I couldn’t tell whom I was supposed to cheer for. I really liked two of the soldiers but when all of them got together I was confused on which one was my favorite anymore and who was a jerk to Perseus. (Don’t worry about it Sam, they’re just jealous of your smashing looks.)

I’m having a hard time telling you to watch this movie. If you’ve seen the 1981 version then maybe you should watch this movie just to compare it to what you grew up with. But if you haven’t seen either then maybe you should watch both. That’s what I hope to do one day. Until that day comes, I guess I’ll just have to wait.

Rating for Clash of the Titans (The 2010 version): **1/2.

Daddy Says:

Sound and fury, signifying nothing. I mentioned it in my review for Tokyo Story, and I could have been referring to just such a movie as this. Clash of the Titans is a remake of the 1981 film of the same name. It's a film adaptation of the myth of Perseus, half son of Zeus, and his quest to battle Medusa and the Kraken monster to save the princess Andromeda.

I'd like to say that the special effects are quite good, but then that would be misleading. If you can tell immediately when something is onscreen that it's a special effect, then has it really done it's job? Pretty much everything Perseus faces is augmented by a computer in some fashion, so the entire film is basically one big special effect. My biggest problem with the effects is not how they look, so much as that I can't really see them very well. When the soldiers are fighting off multiple giant scorpions, the action is so fast and close-up that it's hard to tell where anything is in relation to anything else. Many times one of my kids spoke up and said "oh, I guess there's two of them", soon to be followed with "oh, I guess there's three of them". A nice long establishing shot would have done wonders to help us figure out what was going on.

I'll also mention that the script for this remake is particularly bad. The dialogue caused me to roll my eyes several times, particularly when a new character named Io spoke. There were several changes made to the original film's plot (the loss of the romance subplot between Perseus and Andromeda isn't missed), and one cute moment when Perseus picks up Bebo the robotic owl from the original film, only to be told to leave it it behind.

I may also get some heat for saying this but Sam Worthington is not my idea of a great leading man. In both Avatar and this, he has not impressed me with any kind of real acting talent. I suppose if all you're looking for in a lead is someone who looks good then he's your man, but he fails to bring any real emotion to the parts he plays. If he hopes to go beyond doing these types of sci-fi quickie blockbusters and step into a real dramatic part, he's going to need some work.

Rating for Clash of the Titans: *1/2.