CLASH OF THE TITANS (2010)

CLASH OF THE TITANS (2010)

Tagline: Titans will clash.

(Action, Adventure, Fantasy) [PG-13]

Perseus! It's expensive where you're going...

First off, if you have not seen the original do that. As far as this one goes we have a very similar storyline. Perseus (played by Sam Worthington most famous for AVATAR) is raised by a fisherman, but his date with destiny will ultimately catch up with him as he’s dragged into a war between man and the gods. After Andromeda’s mother insults a goddess, Hades decides it’s a great idea to destroy Argos (a city in Greece). Andromeda offers herself as a sacrifice to appease Hades, but of course, Perseus is not having it and now he’s going to find something that can defeat an indestructible sea-monster known as the Kraken. Along the way, he is going to need a lot of help, like way more help than the "Perseus" in the first movie needed. Can he save Argos and who will ultimately win the “clash of the titans”?

One thing this movie has going for it over the original is CGI. As much as I love stop-motion and respect it as an art form, the creatures in this movie are incredible. The cast in this is amazing. We get everyone from Liam Neeson (famous for the TAKEN series and a ton of other stuff) to Jason Flemyng who is just a brilliant actor, who recently crushed it in IRON MASK. This movie also has one of Gemma Arterton biggest roles as Io. She’s an immortal woman who has been watching over Perseus his entire life. This aspect of the movie is just one of several departures from the original. One of those departures is that under-use of Andromeda played by Alexa Davalos (most famous for THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK) Ralph Fiennes is fantastically creepy as Hades and I could go on and on. This movie is just incredibly well done in the acting department. It even features several actors that were in the GAME OF THRONES. 

Much like in the original this movie does have some slower parts, but overall I think the new ideas mostly worked. Medusa’s look was changed to be more feminine. I think this was likely to draw more sympathy for the character (given that she was once human), but the moments she’s in are not long enough to make it work. I also liked the characters she was picking off quite a bit as well. Io fills in a lot of the context via dialog rather than having the gods talk as much. I am also glad they gave a nod to the mechanical owl from the original movie but wished they would have actually had him in the entire thing. I guess Sam Worthington was a bit of a stick in the mud when it came to having the owl at all. For the most part, the pacing is fine and the overall cinematography is amazing. I also loved the design work for the most part but would have liked if they had left Calibos more like a crazy horned dude rather than just a scared up vat of walking poison. The contrast of dark and light is missing otherwise in this regard. It is not missing in regards to Hades who wasn’t even in the original.   

As a fan of the original, I had no issue with the fact that this movie got made, but do wish we’d have gotten a series rather than just two films. As a stand-alone, this movie is pretty fun but it is not without its issues. We’ve got another CLASH OF THE TITANS film with zero titans in it. Having said that, we also have another very enjoyable movie. For me, this is a solid 5 out of 7. I know that for some this was an insult to the original and Ray Harryhausen, but I really liked it overall.

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF LEGENDARY ENTERTAINMENT AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.  

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