Here’s the gist of it: Clash of the Titans follows a demigod (half man/half god) named Perseusas as he fulfils his fate to bring in the new era of man and replace the rule of the Gods. Man was created by Zeus and man’s prayers fuel the God’s immortality. However, Man started to grow tired of the Gods and started to turn on them. Hades, Zeus’s bitter brother, decides to use this opportunity to overthrow his brother and take power over both Gods and Man through his pet monster called the Kraken. Long story short (the movie is 2 hours long), this is yet another one guy goes on a journey, meets people along the way, finds himself, and saves the world movie. The visuals are pretty poor, the acting is blah, and the music is mundane. It definitely should not be in 3D, but more on that later…
I’m going to try and steer you away from this movie and give you some alternatives. Percy Jackson and the Olympians (review) which is actually a pretty similar story line and shares some of the same Greek myths and themes, has better imagery (you can put almost identical scenes side by side) and is honestly more entertaining. But, Percy Jackson was made for kids so if you want better action (and a lot more gore), wait for Centurion (review) which is in a similar era (not mythology, but still swords and arrows). It comes out in the UK next month, but I got to see a screening at the South by Southwest Film Festival and you can check out my review here.
When it comes to new things, a lot of the time after you take 2 steps forward (Avatar, How to Train Your Dragon (review)), you take 1 step back. Clash of the Titans was one huge step back…in more than one way. The biggest issue everyone will have with this movie is the unwarranted 3D. This movie was made in 2D but then the studio decided they wanted to squeeze a few more bucks out of it so they delayed the movie and made it 3D in post production. What does that mean? It means that instead of using the new 3D cameras that were made for and used in movies such as Avatar, they filmed the movie with regular cameras and added 3D elements after. As a result, the 3D was pitiful and in some ways distracting. If you can, watch this movie in 2D or just take off the 3D glasses, trust me, you’ll enjoy the movie more. To be honest, some of the scenes surprised me with how they could transform 2D into some cool 3D, but most of the time with most of the scenes, it was crap.
So, that’s one step back. This movie also took another step back for Greek mythology. They used the same old worn out stories and didn’t go in depth on anything in particular. I know this was a remake but there were only small glimpses of reimagination when there was so much potential to retell the golden tales of past and expose an audience to some new gems. As the movie stated when it began, the oldest stories are told in the stars…these are some of the greatest oldest stories; they could’ve tried to breathe new life into them. Instead, you got a blockbuster movie aimed to squeeze that first weekend box office for all its worth and then fall to the Kraken of public opinion.
Tags: Alexa Davalos, Centurion, Clash of the Titans, Gemma Arterton, Jason Flemyng, Liam Neeson, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Ralph Fiennes, Sam Worthington
Matthew Fong created advancescreenings.com and is the lead contributor. He watches every type of movie and will try almost anything twice. You can follow him on twitter here: @matthewfong
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