Months ago I saw a preview for this film, and having just finished reading the popular Percy Jackson book series I was psyched to see it. My intrigue took me to my Instant Netflix, where the original Clash of the Titans can be watched. Five minutes in I knew the film was going to be cheesy and dumb compared to films today. And the 1981 film was cheesy, had horrible effects, and too many pretty boys playing warriors. So what's the excuse for this 2010 remake?
For years man has grown tired of the God's wrath. They choose no longer to worship them and try to wage war instead. Zeus, king of gods and maker of humans, agrees to let his brother Hades, lord of the Underworld, reign terror on the city of Argos by unleashing the deadly Kraken unless the princess is sacrificed to the gods. Little does Zeus know that Hades plans to use this destruction to de-thrown his brother and take over Olympus, home of the Gods.
Enter Perseus, a young fisherman whose family has just been killed by Hades. Perseus soon finds out he is part god, but denies his own father, Zeus. Instead he agrees to lead a band of warriors to destroy Hades before the Kraken attacks Argos. Along the way Perseus must fight off Hades' monsters, men who cannot die, and the sinister Medusa.
The plot starts out moving extremely fast in order to get Perseus, played by Sam Worthington, to Argos. It moves so fast I didn't even care that his family was dead, let alone his surrogate father who took care of him for twenty years. The dialogue also moved just like the story with actors saying their lines so fast there was no resonance to their meaning. Everything, including the action sequences, ran so quickly I had no time to care about most of the characters before they met tragic ends. This made it hard to get pulled into a story when I didn't care about the people in it.
However, half way through the film things started to slow down. Perseus' goals became fewer and the actors lines had more meaning. Unfortunately it was too late. What could have been a great film was only a mediocre film thanks to the rushing of our hero's origin and useless characters.
This film was supposed to come out in mid-March, but after Avatar hit it big the film's release date was pushed back as crew spent ten weeks converting the film into 3-D. Man was that a waste! Sure the scene with Perseus flying on his pegasus was cool, but that was about the only scene you needed 3-D for. The special effects and set design were great, but the conversion of 3-D took away from some of that imagery, which made it look like sloppy camera shots.
After playing in two recent adventure films I think it's safe to say Sam Worthington is now a bona fide action star. Like the rest of the film, when the second half slowed down Worthington's performance got better, but I don't think he's close to winning an Oscar, or even a Kids Choice Award.
Liam Neeson played Zeus with a great commanding elegance, but the show stealer was Ralph Fiennes as Hades. His performance was enhanced by the great effects crew members added to make his character look like a creepy angel of death.
Director Louis Leterrier, who recently directed The Incredible Hulk, seemed to have a good vision for this world, but pacing is what hurt this film; in story, dialogue, and 3-D processing. For future reference Hollywood, just because the highest grossing film ever was in 3-D does not mean I want to see every film in 3-D. I am not seeing Schindler's List in 3-D so you can just forget it Spielberg!
GRADE: C-
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