Release the Kraken … and the CGI effects!
“Clash of the Titans” isn’t your older brother’s Greek mythology movie.
The new film, a remake of the 1981 “classic” starring Harry Hamlin and Laurence Olivier, is very much a product of 2010 movie making – right down to the 3-D conversion kit used to make it pop off the screen.
As remakes go, “Clash” pays proper homage to the original. It’s just as silly as the source material and comes alive when those fantastic creatures commandeer the screen.
“Clash” stars Sam Worthington as Perseus, the son of a very ticked off Zeus (Liam Neeson). Seems humanity isn’t worshiping Zeus and his fellow gods heartily enough.
So Zeus will teach them a lesson courtesy of the Kraken, a sea beastie which will wipe out a fair share of people once unleashed.
That leaves it to Perseus to figure out a way to stop an unstoppable creature – and sort out some of his daddy issues.
Like its predecessor, “Clash” clicks whenever the creature parade begins. We get giant scorpions, winged horses and, of course, the snake-haired Medusa trying to dash Perseus’ hopes for saving humanity.
The latter should have been a treat for the senses, if only the 3-D action didn’t render everything on screen a shade or two darker than it should be. The 3-D enhancements made over time are profound, but the finished product still lacks the necessary light to make these movies sparkle.
Worthington also is a work in progress. He upstaged Christian Bale in “Terminator Salvation,” but that was hardly a heroic feat. His work in “Avatar” was overshadowed by literally everything around him, blue and non-blue alike.
Here, he’s bland and unremarkable, a handsome face floating through a sea of CGI wonders.
(More below)
What “Clash” needs, beyond a better lead performance, is more hammy acting to match the silly storyline. Neeson gets it mostly right, acting regal amid fuzzy closeups as the God whose flock has abandoned him.
A bit more comic relief also couldn’t hurt. A few of the supporting players seem pegged for just such a contingency, but the screenplay can’t be bothered to work up one hearty guffaw.
“Clash of the Titans” includes a throwaway moment in which the mechanized owl from the 1981 film appears, and is quickly dismissed. It’s a funny moment, one meant to illustrate the gap between the original and this fancy new production.
At its core, the two films are actually quite similar despite the 30 year technology gap.
(Photo: Sam Worthington strikes a pose as Perseus, the star of the new Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ film “Clash of the Titans,” distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. Photo Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Looks to me as if Sam Worthington has adopted a lot from Gladiator’s Maximus. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, they say.
It just doesn’t seem right to have a movie about Greek mythology without Ray Harryhausen’s stunning model work. I loved movies like “Jason and the Argonauts” and the original “Clash of the Titans”.
I thought the original movie was about an affront to Hera, not Zeus. Maggie Smith’s chilling voice… Then there was Burgess Meredith and that mechanical owl. Good stuff.