My Review: Clash of the Titans (5/10)

¨ The gods need us! They need our prayers! What do we need the gods for? ¨

(5/10) Louis Leterrier has brought the epic movie of the struggle between the Greek gods and men back to the big screen in this remake of the 1981 film of the same name: Clash of the Titans. Leterrier is known for directing the 2008 version of The Incredible Hulk, and the first two of The Transporter movies, which in my opinion were all better films than this loud epic movie with a lot of action sequences and good visuals, but little plot and character development. The screenplay (which really didn`t seem necessary in this movie because the entire focus of the film was on the action) was written by Travis Beacham, Matt Manfredi, and Phil Hay (the guys responsible for such titles as The Tuxedo and Aeon Flux, which are probably not good films to have included in your resume). Clash of the Titans suffers from extensive action sequences with little time to focus on character development. I think that Greek mythology is so rich and complex that much more could have been done with the plot instead of focusing on just one action sequence after another. It seemed to me that the film could be divided into these following segments: introduction of Perseus, the scorpion action scene, the medusa action scene, the kraken action scene, and a short conclusion. This is just one of those action films which you see one time and forget all about it.

Sam Worthington seems to be the most wanted action star of the moment after his lead roles in Terminator Salvation and Avatar. This time he plays Perseus, a semi-god semi-human, who is angry at Hades (Ralph Fiennes known for playing Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter series) for killing his adoptive parents. Perseus has declared war at the gods, who are responsible for so much human suffering because the gods depend on human worship and their strength relies on their offerings, but humans have seemed to stop worshiping them and therefore the gods have decided to retaliate and bring suffering to mankind. The Greek city of Argos receives a visit from Hades who warns them that if they do not sacrifice Princess Andromeda (Alexa Davalos) he will release the kraken and destroy their city. Perseus discovers that if he kills the kraken he can have his revenge on Hades so he decides to embark on a journey to the underworld to face all kinds of creatures along with a group of soldiers from Argos. Perseus is the son of Zeus (Liam Neeson), but he doesn`t want anything to do with him and he wants to face these creatures as a mortal human. He refuses the gods assistance on this journey and decides to face the underworld as a mere human.

Clash of the Titans could have been a great movie, but it suffers from a weak plot and we really don`t care for the characters because little time is spent on developing them. It seems as though the entire focus of the film is on the action and fighting sequences and little time is devoted to the Greek mythology. The cast is not the issue in this movie as every actor seems to be outshined by the visuals and even great actors such as Liam Neeson can`t do anything to save the film. I haven`t seen the original version so I can`t compare it, but I wouldn`t recommend this movie. The 3D is also very poorly done and most of the time it felt as I was seeing the movie in two dimensions, so if you go see Clash of the Titans don`t spend the extra money to see it in 3D because it is not worth it. This is a loud action movie, but the visuals aren`t enough to save it because we have seen it all before.

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