I’m a fan of Greek Mythology. So it’s always entertaining for me to see how each director chooses to visualize their story. How will they reinvent what has been shown thousands of times in thousands of different forms for generations? Clash of the Titans is no let down in that department. The visuals are impressive in everyway -- true eye candy for the visual effects aficionado.
Apart from that however, the movie falls short. The story is just blah, and the characters are very one dimensional. Don’t get me wrong, I left the theater having enjoyed the film; but besides the spectacular special effects, this movie didn’t have much.
Sam Worthington, fresh from his role as Jake Sully in the highest grossing film of all time Avatar, is this movie’s lead character Perseus – a classic youth from mysterious origins setting off to save the day. Defiant from the beginning to the end, Sam’s character shows little development throughout the film. It seems pure defiance is all the depth this character has. He is accompanied by a few other warriors and protectors who also share only one character attribute; whether it is contempt, protectiveness, wisdom or resourcefulness -- but none showing any growth or change.
The plot is also disappointingly one dimensional. This movie is supposed to be a remake of the 1981 movie version of the same name which is more of a literal translation on the actual Greek Mythological story of Perseus, who fell in love with Princess Andromeda and had to prevent her death from the dreaded Kraken by completing several nearly impossible quests. This is more or less the plotline of the new Clash of the Titans. This time around however, the writers chose to add what they presumed to be more depth to the tale; but instead, in this reviewer’s opinion, they added a tired plot line -- Hades (Ralph Fiennes) rising up against his brother Zeus (Liam Neeson) to take control of the heavens. Though to the writer’s credit, there was one new element that I hadn’t seen before that I thought was exceptionally cool, but I won’t spoil it here.
So conclusion time: Go see it! Have fun! Enjoy the effects, the visual style, the fast pace, the nonstop fight scenes, and the epic monsters. But don’t go expecting a moving storyline or character’s that will steal your heart away -- they just don’t exist in this movie.
