Writers: Travis Beacham/Phil Hay/Matt Manfredi
Director: Louis Leterrier
Company: Warner Bros. Pictures
Clash of the Titans, the 1981 original, is a dose of campy fun, with mechanical owls, horrible cheesy acting, and the last hurrah of Ray Harryhausen and his stop motion monsters. That recipe right there is for almost the perfect movie, but Hollywood always feels like they can improve, so here we are in 2010. With a more serious tone and tons of CGI (although some cheesy acting still remains), Clash of the Titans is here for a new generation of kids and the second mythology film to come out this year (after the Percy Jackson one with Pierce Brosnon). While the original was fun, this is not, and this brand spanking new Clash looks good, but does not have the staying power of the original.
It looks like no one cares about the gods of Mt. Olympus any more and the creator of everything, Zeus (Liam Neeson), is upset. In order to get the faith of the people back, he lets his brother Hades (Ralph Fiennes) lord of the Underworld to teach the humans a lesson. Hades comes to Argon and gives them ten days to either sacrifice the daughter of their king or face the wrath of the Kraken, a giant sea monster who the gods use to strike fear in the hearts of many.
While the situation is Argon heats up, a group of soldiers venture out to find a way to destroy the Kraken, and in turn, Hades. They are lead by Perseus (Sam Worthingon), a fisherman whose family is murdered during one of Hades' strikes against the humans. He also happens to be a demi-god, the half son of Zeus. Perseus must come to terms with this and find a way to win the war, all the while having to face giant mythical CGI beings of doom.
I can't stress this enough: Clash of the Titans is a very good looking movie. The costumes and settings are excellent and the CGI monsters are very well done. The battle scenes are also done well and provided some excitement that is sorely needed. However, outside of this, Clash of the Titans has its host of problems.
My first issue with the movie has to do with Sam Worthington. It might just be me, but I do not see what the big deal is with him. He hasn't done anything very good, and here he is just a faceless lead. He is the main character, but I could not care less about his plight or his issues because the guy was just straight boring. The other actors that make up his group are also just as bad, and the female character/love interest of Io (Gemma Arterton) is just there to tell the audience about the mythology and explain the backstory to the people who don't know it.
The only people in the cast who seemed to have a handle on what they were doing were Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes, who play Zeus and Hades, respectively. Neeson is getting more and more lame as time goes by, and I am all for it. He is awesome as Zeus, overacting like a pro and ushering in the one line to take from this film ("RELEASE THE KRAKEN!"). Fiennes plays evil very well and made a good villain, although his screen time is limited.
Speaking of limited screen time, where were the rest of the gods? All the Mt. Olympus stuff was Zeus and Hades, with little to no input from the other gods. Sure, they were there but they didn't say anything and part of the fun of the original was the arguing between Gods. It seemed like a waste to even include them if they weren't going to be involved.
Clash of the Titans also ends anti-climatically. It would spoil the ending, but let me just say after a certain snake headed woman is involved, it goes downhill and the ending is nowhere near as exciting.
Overall, I was very disappointed with this remake. It lacked the fun of the original, and while it looked good, it was a boring experience and featured some truly terrible acting. It feels like a rush job in every sense of the word. If I were you, I would avoid this.