Clash of the Titans Review

RELEASE THE KRAKEN!!!

Okay, so now that I got that out of my system, lets move on to the review.

So "Clash of the Titans" is a remake of 1980's stop motion heavy film of the same name. It was tacky and cheesy as hell, but still extremely fun to watch. The remake has been in development for some time and even at one time had legendary screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan (Raiders of the Lost Arc, The Empire Strikes Back) take a crack at. I'm not sure how much of Kasdan's screenplay was present in the final product but something tells me not much.

The film focuses on Perseus, rape baby of Zeus, the king of the Gods. Apparently the Gods feed of the love and prayers of man but as of late the Gods have grown lazy so man has been attempting to rebel against the Gods. Zeus turns to his brother Hades to scare some wrath of God into mankind, and Perseus' family is killed in the crossfire. So Perseus undergoes a revenge vendetta against the Gods alongside a few buddies.

The plot plays fast and loose with the legend of Perseus as well as the plot of the original film. I enjoyed the changes made though, seeing how in the original film the main plot is made apparent about half way through. The plot is simple and strangely complex: Hades demands the sacrifice of the princess Andromeda or he will RELEASE THE KRAKEN on the city of Argos, so Perseus undergoes a quest to find a way to destroy the Kraken, and all the while Hades is really scheming to take over Mount Olympus for himself.

This plot moves the film along at an extremely fast pace, and hence my first problem with the movie: its just too rushed. The film is just over an hour and a half and barely gives us time to breath or get to know the countless characters that pop up over the course of the film with the exception of one or two lines of exposition. The film basically just jumps from one major action scene to the next and squeezes in some story in there just to keep our attention. For the most part the action scenes are well executed though they suffer from the "shaky cam effect" where alot of the time you cant see what the hell is going on and who is fighting who (or what). The best action scene is by far the scene when Hades RELEASES THE KRAKEN on Argos. There's a chase through the city with Perseus on Pegasus and Hades' winged bat things, all the while the Kraken is wrecking shop.

Another thing that gets lost amid the action scenes is character. Perseus is never really explored other than being a pissed off ex-fisherman.The focus of the film seems to be Perseus struggling with his demi-God status, but he never really changes his stance on it. When we meet him he refuses to live as a God, and at the end he is still the same, except slightly less pissed off. As said before, many side characters are glanced over, especially ex-Bond girl Gemma Atherton as Io, a character that I guess was meant to be a love interest but for the most part all she does is explain story points and at the end we still don't know anything about her.

But for the most part, great acting makes up for the lack of character development. Sam Worthington, fresh off of stealing "Terminator Salvation" and a solid performance in "Avatar", proves he can indeed carry a movie on his own. The always amazing Liam Neeson was born to play Zeus, and as always brings class to the role. Our generation's greatest "bad guy" actor Ralph Fiennes gives the film's best performance as Hades, being both creepy and somewhat pathetic. "Casino Royale" baddie (was this whole movie just a James Bond reunion?) Mads Mikkelson gives a surprisingly badass performance as the captain of the guard/somewhat mentor to Perseus. I was sorry to see that Danny Huston got mostly cut out of the film with the exception of few lines as Poseidon.

All in all, this was a fun action film. The set design, make up, and special effects are all jaw dropping. As said earlier the action scene with the Kraken was amazing. The acting was top notch for the most part and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what else is in store Sam Worthington. If the film would have slowed down for a bit I definately would have enjoyed it more, but overall it was a good ten bucks spent.