Clash Of The Titans 2010 - Mini Review

The Louis Letterier directed 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans has been one of my most anticipated movies of 2010. Did it live up to my expectations and the massive hype created by the pics and the trailer?

Sadly no... it didn't.

I went to the 12:30pm 3-D showing today with Dark Knight and his mate and just before we headed off for the cinema DK told me he'd read bad reviews... I of course said "ahh, I'm gonna love it anyway" thinking that because I loved the original and love everything to do with the Greek Gods and the movies they're in that I'd automatically love this new Clash remake. I was kinda wrong there.

Clash is by no means a terrible film. It has a few stand out moments, namely Medusa and the Kraken (even though the special effects are nothing outstanding, they're clearly CGI and not mind blowing in their execution) but there are a plethora of negative points which I'll now list.

WARNING: SPOILERS!

- Pete Postlethwaite seems to have found himself a new typecast role in movies... A loving father who dies. Both in Solomon Kane and now in Clash he has a small part which is cut short by the bad guy offing him. Damn shame as I think he deserves more and is an excellent actor.

- Sam Worthington hasn't earned his 'lead actor' chops yet as far as I'm concerned. Terminator Salvation, Avatar and now Clash and he's still too wooden to praise. He's not crap, he just seems to be the same person (albeit with a different accent, Australian coming forward this time) in each film with no differential between his various emotions.

- Every single character in this movie was underused and almost ancillary to the plot. We felt nothing for the plight of Princess Andromeda, no hatred for King Acrisius/ Calibos, no awe for Zeus or Hades (who were both pretty bland here considering it's Liam Neeson and Ralph "Voldermort" Fiennes) etc etc. Even the Jin sorcerer Sheikh Sulieman was throw away to the entire plot of the film and his death was just plain stupid. He did nothing to expand the story and his tagging along wasn't used in any way. He, along with the other four Argos soldiers who followed Perseus into Medusa's cave near the end all died quick and needless deaths and you almost had to laugh when Perseus emerges from the cave alone... WTF? Would it have hurt at all for some to survive, or all to survive, considering the massive artistic interpretation we were watching anyway? To this point I also have to add that Zeus bringing back Io for his son at the end, after she'd been killed by Calibos, had no meaning or impact, because she and Perseus never cultivated anything like a romantic relationship in the entire movie. Zeus would have done better bringing his foster father, mother and sister back from the dead. It would have made more sense seeing as Perseus originally wanted to embark on his vengeful journey in the first place to avenge his family. The rescue of the Princess technically meant nothing to him, he wasn't even from Argos and doesn't end up with her!!!

- It was either the flow of the film or the editing but something felt wrong about Clash. It felt like the story went nowhere, or that it had no real direction in the first place. It was hollow and without heart and although the adverts made it look like a real rip-roaring blockbuster with loads of action and cool monsters it was a true case of "the trailer looked better than the movie". Shame. You might not agree, but that's the way it felt. The 3-D really didn't hep either, I kept pushing the glasses down to see what was happening as the new specs actually darken the screen considerably and as this was a pretty dark film in parts, and there was a lot of close up fighting, it all became a bit of a blur, which is one of my major bug bears in movies.

- Pegasus being black instead of white. No racist comments here, it's just plain silly to change the iconic white winged horse from white to black just for the purpose of making this new 2010 version different to the original. And again I'll add here that the scene with Bubo the mechanical owl made me very angry. If you're going to include a cameo from one of the original movies best known characters you don't do it by picking the damn thing out of a weapons chest, having Perseus ask what it is and then have someone say something to the effect of "don't worry about it, put it back" and then that's it... Does Leterrier not remember how big a part Bubo had in the original? Was it so hard to give a mechanical flying owl more screen time in a movie with so many special effects and various mythological creatures already added? Wasn't Bubo a gift from the Gods too? Should we expect more from the man who brought us the newest Incredible Hulk movie and Transporter 2? Guess not.

- Perseus stating for the entire movie that he would win this battle as a man and would accept no help from the Gods, in any way and form, even when he was about to die, and yet he still picks up the God-given sword to defeat Calibos and accepts the help of Pegasus knowing full well he's been pushed towards him by Zeus... And he doesn't exactly complain when Io is brought back at the end either. Two faced doesn't quite do it justice. You can't completely deny and vilify the help of the Gods, only to use it when you need it to complete a task. It ruins his characters entire integrity in the film.

I give up...

There are more points I could bitch about but I feel like I'm being too negative. I enjoyed the film enough that I'll buy the DVD, or maybe Blu-ray at a push, and watch it in 2-D in the comfort of my room at home. But overall it kinda killed my hopes, and maybe that's where I went wrong. I expected too much. If you've never seen the original or don't know the basic story then you may come out of this enjoying it more than I did. But isn't the primary point of a remake to get the old fans back in the cinema to enjoy the new version as well as introducing it to the next generation?

Aaaaaanyway... I did think the Pegasus horses looked well done, Gemma Arterton was beautiful and maybe one of the best elements of the film (her, not her looks), I liked Mads Mikkelsen as Draco (even though he and the others were offed way to easily) and I liked the Mount Olympus throne room with it's cool flooring. All in all though this film needed more and I left not wanting to say out loud that I didn't enjoy it as much as I should have, only to hear everyone around me saying exactly what I was thinking!

I will say that I'm 50/50 about recommending it for cinema viewing. It cost me £10.90 to watch (as it was 3-D and you had the buy the glasses, damn myself for not bringing my last pair that I still have!) which is a lot of money to come out of disappointed by, but if you get the chance to see it on DVD then yeah, I'm sure it'll be two hours of your evening you won't want to claw back. And knowing me I'll enjoy it much more the second time round and have to come back and amend my review! I just watched the trailer below having already seen the movie and still got goosebumps... Shame the movie didn't do the same the first time round!

5/10