Ror Reviews: Clash Of The Titans

As you know, I'm a firm believer that the "popcorn defense" is no defense at all. If your movie's target audience are special effects action fans then thats fine, no one will expect any awards in your future but those movies can still be entertaining or even awesome(Avatar). But bad film making is bad film making no matter what the circumstances. I'll try to keep any major spoilers out of this but there will be a few minor ones.

Unfortunately Clash 2010 is just a mess of a movie in practically every respect. The plot deviates quite a bit from the original movie, but thats ok, we knew that this version would put a different spin on the same story. But by changing character motivations and trying to cover every set piece base touched on in the original into a 90 minute film Letterier has completely hamstrung himself. Here Perseus(Sam Worthington) is motivated by revenge and not a desire to save Andromeda, although he will, yknow, do that anyway! After Hades(Ralph Feinnes) kills his family Perseus swears revenge and sets out on a quest with a bunch of much better actors(Madds Mickleson, Liam Cunningham, Gemma Arterton...the wooden dude) to slay Medusa and turn The Kraken to stone which will weaken Hades enough for Perseus to kill him. A God. KIll a God...sort of. Although he is the son of Zeus(Liam Neeson) and a Demigod, Perseus tells us and his men time and time again that he is doing this as a man and will not accept help from the Gods or use his gifts in any way because he would risk becoming like them. Noble stuff. Then he says [frick] it and accepts their help anyway. The film is full of contradictions and silly set ups like this. It jumps around from scene to scene, sometimes with barely any transition at all. One second Perseus is watching his family drown, the next he is a prisoner in the Kings court. We see Hades inform Zeus that his son is in Argos(not the shop, the city), next we see the citizens demand to know from Perseus if its true that he is the son of Zeus..without ever being told! I don't know if this was a problem with the editor or if Letterier simply didn't shoot enough footage but the result is shoddy stuff indeed. It could have been forgiven for this had it pulled its socks up in other departments but it fails to do that too. The performances range from meh(Worthington..fast proving that without a good director he's not worth a damn) to good(Mikleson, Cunningham) but still weighed down by the piss poor script and plotting. Gemma Arterton is probably the closest the cast has to a real highlight but she gets no where near enough screen time and her character Io is basically only there to provide exposition. The special effects are pretty good though, and the CG creatures interact very well with the human characters. But Medusa, who should have been the films high point, looks like something from a computer game..and indeed, the whole sequence in her lair plays out like one. There is ZERO tension. No time is taken to set up any sense of dread or danger its just straight in, cast decimation, "Don't look this bitch in the eye" crap. The original film was no masterpiece but the reason it has endured is because it handled these scenes the way they should be handled. Just watch the Medusa sequence from the original and compare it to the new one and you will have a fair idea what to expect from this.

The only real positive thing I can say about this is that the action scenes are done well. Letterier does indeed know how to stage a good scrap. But who cares? What does it matter when without a solid plot and a cast of characters we really care about its just noise and swords clanging? If thats all you want to see you can watch videos on youtube of battle reenactments and save yourself the 10 quid! Which brings me to the 3D issue. I saw it in 2D after being advised by practically everyone on here and elsewhere not to fork out for the gimmick, so I can't comment on that side of it.

Clash Of The Titans isn't a complete wash out, there are moments of excitement and entertainment..just, and if your all about the clash n smash you'l probably enjoy it. But it has to be one of the most disappointing movies of the year so far for me. Oh and LL for The Avengers? Sure, if you have absolutely no anticipation, expectations or desire to see it done well..bring it on!