Clash of the Titans Review: The Kraken is Released, and It Doesn’t Disappoint!

Steve,

Almost 30 years ago in 1981, legendary producer and stop-motion animator, Ray Harryhausen, released the classic Greek mythology epic, Clash of the Titans, starring Harry Hamlin as the Greek hero Perseus, and Laurence Olivier as Zeus. The film tells the story of how Perseus defeated both the mythical creature, Medusa, and the sea monster known as the Kraken. It became a box office hit that June, and has gone on to inspire many Greek mythology-based films. Now, Louis Leterrier, director of the Transporter series and 2008’s Incredible Hulk revival, has released a remake of Clash of the Titans, with a new look and today’s big-name actors. The question is, does this new adaptation of the ancient Greek myth respect the previous movie or is it just another lame remake shelled out to make money?

The plot of this version of Perseus’ story is similar to the original film, but with some alterations. The people of Argos, an ancient Greek city on the waterfront, decide to denounce the gods at the cost of incurring their wrath and being potentially annihilated. This angers Zeus (Liam Neeson), who, at the urging of his brother Hades (Harry Potter’s Ralph Fiennes), presents Argos with an ultimatum: sacrifice their future queen, Andromeda, or the Kraken will be unleashed and destroy their city. What Zeus doesn’t suspect this that Hades plans to use the Kraken’s impending return to regain his former power and take over Olympus. It’s now up to Zeus’ demigod son, Perseus (Avatar’s Sam Worthington), his mentor and love interest, Io (Quantum of Solace’s Gemma Arterton), and a band of warriors to find and kill Medusa, and use her head to destroy the Kraken and foil Hades’ plan.


In terms of plot and character development, Clash of the Titans is, for the most part, very loyal to the original 1981 film. The action scenes were just as enjoyable as the ones in Leterrier’s recent Hulk adaptation, the best scene being a pulse-pounding fight with a gang of giant scorpions. Each of the main characters are well-developed and fleshed out, especially Perseus, Io, and Zeus. Ralph Fiennes’ Hades almost steals the show, portrayed as a vengeful, scheming villain who will stop at nothing to get what he wants.





The most controversial topic regarding this film is how it was made for certain 3D showings. Unlike films like Avatar or Alice in Wonderland, which were film with 3-D cameras, this movie is the first of a ever-growing list of movies that are being converted into 3D during post-production. Because of this, the look of the 3D visuals is completely different than with the 3D used in Avatar. Despite most of the critics complaining about how this movie’s 3D looks terrible, I’d have to say that it’s nowhere near as bad as what they’re saying, though it certainly needs to be improved. Most of the time, it looks like regular 2D, but it does give a sense of immersion to those watching the movie in 3D. Bottom line, while not terrible, the practice of 3D conversion is something that could use quite a bit of polishing in order to get the converted movie to actually look like it was made in 3D.


3D opinions aside, Clash of the Titans is an awesome thrill-ride that’s fun to watch and leaves you wanting more after the credits roll. The plot might be slightly different from the original 1981 film, but this remake, in many ways, respects and even gives nods to it’s predecessor. If you are turned off by what people are saying about the use of 3D in this, just go see the movie in 2D instead. Either way, this is one clash you don’t want to miss.


Rating: 8.5/10

Reviews

Related Posts

Movie Review: We Bought a Zoo

There is a now-clichéd Tom Cruise speech in Cameron Crowe’s 1996 megahit, Jerry Maguire, which begins: “We live in a cynical world.” While the merits of that film, and that line, are now debatable, there is one unquestionable truth in Cruise’s statement: it truly sums up Cameron Crowe’s directorial ethos….

Read More

Star Trek Review

JJ Abrams’ Star Trek, a reboot (of sorts) of the franchise with the same name, releases nationwide today. I was lucky enough to see one of the limited early showings last night on IMAX. I could go into the whole “you need to see it in IMAX” discussion, but that’s…

Read More

Comments (18)

  2. Well wen and saw the movie last night in 3D. A few things is I am very disapointed that the golded owl was left out of the film, in the orignal film the owl played a large roll in the movie and was very didapointed to not see it in the new 3D film. As I watched the movie I felt that the movie seem to be compacted and hurried to the end. I think this movie could of used allot more deatail and could have been allot larger hit if more effort went in the film.

  4. Well..yeah I was disappointed with the whole owl thing to..but they DID give it a funny “nod”!

    “Whats this?”

    “pff..leave it!”

    If you don’t remember the first movie..it’s still classic despite the fact that we are spoiled on computer generation imagery the “claymation” of the originial was extremely well done. Certainly one of the last films to use such photography.

    All in all I recommend it to anyone.

  5. This was a horrible movie. Alot was left out of it compared to the first one. the way he got the pegasus was totally messed up, and it was BLACK… They left out the fight with the 3 headed dog, that was a joke. And like mentioned about, they gave a brief nod to the clock work owl. They completely changed the way the creature that was working for Hades looked also. Overall this movie was horrible. I was very disappointed.

  6. I was disapointed in the movie, the 3D was naff some scene’s actually looked like there was somebody standing behind the actors, despite some people saying the owl Bobo was not in the film he was but only for a few seconds when he was pulled out of an old case then chucked back in it…. and why do you have to pay extra to see a 3D movie.

    All in all not worth seeing it despite all the hype

    Rating 4/10

  7. I believe the movie was really good but did feel like it was rushed. The fact that the owl was not in the movie was really dissapointing. He did play a huge role in the original. It was a bummer but I do give this movie 2 thumbs up.

  8. No owl?! Now i’m interested in seeing it. I always thought that that stupid owl should never have been in the film. It is based on mythology not sci-fi. Leave the robots out.

  9. Sci-Fi Channel in about 3 weeks – 3D effect was poor quaility, is that what all the 3Ds are gonna end up looking like just to do 3D cheaply,that would be a bummer, Avatars 3D looked way way better, this new technology needs to always look as good as the intro to the Disney 3D Intro promo they start their movies with or go back to 2D. Previews for upcoming 3D movies were even worse. The Fight scenes in the film moved so fast you could not tell what you were looking at or seeing. Some parts were cool, story was cool, great visuals, dialog was too ridiculous at times, not worth running out to see or the extra $ for 3D.

  11. I saw this in 2D Friday night, and i found myself extremely disapointed. Halfway through I wanted to leave and ask for a refund, however I kept thinking, maybe it will get better. The storyline was butchered and it seemed the whole movie was a rush from one action scene to CGI scene, and rush back to action, with very little plot development. Some characters were completely invented while others where left out completely with the story being butchered to accomodate these character losses. If you have ever seen the 1981 original, you will hate this version. However if you have never seen it, you may find this movie somewhat entertaining if you’re going to see CGI and action with no regard to story.

  12. If you saw the original then you will be disappointed in this version, especially if you take your kids to see a hero defeat the forces of evil (with a little help from the Gods). This is almost a completely different story, even though many of the same characters are used. They should title it something else.

  14. Probably the worst movie of the last decade. There was no detail given into any of the characters lives, with the exception of Perseus, and even then… not a whole lot. The special effects were awful. It looked like rubber and styrofoam. There were no Titans in the movie. I feel bad for some of the good actors in this. Definitely a B movie, and a bad one at that.

  15. Part of the old version’s appeal was the golden owl. I am very dissapointed such a main charactor was left out.

Comments are closed.