The audio review:
Action scenes, gods and monsters, giant scorpions, fellowships: they're all in Clash of the Titans, and they're all in 3D! These ideas may seem like they mix well on-screen, and they do to a certain extent, but I'll be quite frank about this - Titans doesn't do any of it that well, making it a mixed bag that is sure to please at one point and annoy at another.
Of course, the film in question is a remake of a cult classic B-movie from the 1980s, and keeping this in mind, it's easy to cut the 2010 version some slack with the storyline. However, there's not much substance to director Louis Leterrier's film: Perseus (Sam Worthington) finds himself family-less after blasphemous men decide to offend the gods, Zeus gives orders to Hades to carry out an attack on humanity, and Perseus finds himself mixed up in the battle because he is Zeus' half-son who is the only one who can save the human race. There's nothing to get too excited over there, and that's shown fairly well throughout the movie. It's obvious that this plot can't sustain much in the way of entertainment, so a lot of monsters are thrown in to make things more adventurous.
But there's not too much at stake for Sam Worthington and his band of haphazard fighters. Sure, humanity might be axed - but none of the citizens seem that worthy of being saved as it is, being too busy turning against Zeus in worship of Hades - and the film kind of forgets about the whole town anyway for a good hour. Seeing as Perseus has no ties to the city anyway, it's a rather tenuous connection between his role as savior and the motivation behind it.
Sam Worthington also plays a tedious role as the personality-less hero. His combat sequences look nice, but his character is so limited and generic that it's a let-down. The most Leterrier gives us is an emotional opening sequence where Perseus loses his family - the scene is effective, and later reduced to nothing by the lack of any consistency in tone.
The fighting is nicely choreographed, and anyone who enjoys a good brawl will get a kick out of these extended shots, especially scorpion-battling in the desert. The visual combat is obviously the draw; if it's not your thing to begin with, stay far away from Titans. But the 3D doesn't add much to the film at all, at least not in the theater I saw the film in; there's not much difference in the look of the movie, and it's disappointing that nothing really pops out of the screen, because it felt like so much more could have been accomplished with the amount of action present.
Unfortunately, the amount of cliches that arise is too much to handle. Goofy one-liners, outdated monsters like the giant scorpions, and an inconsistency in CGI (Medusa's graphics being especially cheesy) make this a film for die-hards only. Even the homage thrown in is heavy-handed at best and totally unnecessary. Titans just doesn't try very hard to extract itself from the multitudes of other mindless hack-and-slash adventures, and though it may be somewhat fun to watch, it's certainly not worth the price of 3D admission.
Clash of the Titans on Rotten Tomatoes
3 COMMENTS:
Agree with you, the 3-D is such a rip off! Ill never forgive MGM for pulling such a cheap move on audiences! Its sleazy!
I had fun with the monster, but pretty much hated the way the movie unfolded. So many things could have gone better! But, thats what happens when the studio fucks with your film.
I wrote a small article on why Clash of the Titans went so wrong, hint: the studio ordered reshoots to 'fix' the story to their liking!
Heres the link in case you are interested:
http://filmconnoisseur.blogspot.com/2010/04/why-did-clash-of-titans-go-so-wrong.html
I was so let down by it, not that I was expecting much anyway. Worthington is atrocious (just as he's been in everything I've seen him in so far.) The movie shows utter contempt for the original, and lacks all of its heart. All the sense of swashbuckling fun is gone and replaced by unnecessary broodiness, ie. the needless interjection of Hades into the plot. Harryhausen's original monster creations were so much cooler than this CGI mess, especially in the case of Medusa, as you said. The gods, Zeus in particular, are changed from being merely flawed, somewhat petty yet still awe-inspiring beings into outright cruel, malevolent entities unworthy of man's attentions. And Calibos is totally ruined as a character! Hell, they even made fun of poor Bubo. Awful.
Thanks for the link! I agree, most of the time reshoots are not good for a film.
B-Sol: I haven't seen the original, so I can't really compare them, but I know that it's got a good fanbase, and from what you say, I can't imagine those fans of the original are happy with this remake.
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