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Overall Rating : 4/10
Directed By : Louis Leterrier
Sam Worthington (Avatar)
Liam Neeson (Taken)
Ralph Fiennes (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)
Jason Flemyng (Mirrors)
Supplied By : Warner Home Video
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : July. 27, 2010
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| PLOT n Clash of the Titans, the ultimate struggle for power pits men against kings and kings against gods. But the war between the gods themselves could destroy the world. Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus (Sam Worthington) is helpless to save his family from Hades (Ralph Fiennes), vengeful god of the underworld. With nothing to lose, Perseus volunteers to lead a dangerous mission to defeat Hades before he can seize power from Zeus (Liam Neeson) and unleash hell on earth. Battling unholy demons and fearsome beasts, Perseus and his warriors will only survive if Perseus accepts his power as a god, defies fate and creates his own destiny. | ||||
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| THE REVIEW In CLASH OF THE TITANS, the once powerful Gods of the heavens haven gone protested by the mortals, more in particular, the God called Zeus. When the citizens of Argos start to resist their faiths and and the power of the Gods, Zeus leaves it up to Hades to formulate an ultimatum. The ultimatum handed down to the mortals is that they are to offer up one sacrifice, their Princess, Princess Andromeda, and should they do this all mankind including their city shall be saved from destruction. And of course should they not comply, Zeus has something lying in wait, and that would be a beast born of the sea, the beast known as the Kraken. The Kraken, a beast like no other, possesses the power to destroy Gods, so of course destroying only a mere city would be no work at all. With some who are actually for giving into the Gods' demands in sacrificing their Princess, there are also those whom are strongly against it, thus causing a rift in Argos. But almost as soon as the disputes begin, arrives into town, an heroic figure by the name of Perseus. Perseus all of his life grew up as the son of a local fisherman after being found a drift a sea, along with his deceased mother, little did he know that he is actually the half god, rather Demigod son of Zeus himself. In a new and unknown place, Perseus finds himself as the unlikeliest of heroes, as he leads a small army against hordes of mythological creature in their path, concluding with the massive Kraken. One big advantage that most reviewers will have over me is that they have seen the original version of this film, a film that was released in 1981 starring Harry Hamlin and Laurence Olivier. It's true that I have not seen that film, because quite frankly, this Greek Mythology stuff just isn't my cup of tea, if you know what I mean. As a kid I grew up liking wrestling and Martial Arts as opposed to anything that was Sci-Fi or prehistoric. From what I understand, instead of having the luxury of CGI animation, back in 1981 the original film's effects relied solely on the now, as it seems, lost art of stop motion animation. Forget two clicks of a mouse and an enter button keyed on a keyboard, in stop motion, everything was shot and posed frame by frame. Talk about a lot of work and time spent, but none the less, again from what I gather it wasn't a masterpiece, but also from what i've read, some would rather have that film which was far from a masterpiece, than this over-blown computer fest that is no more exciting than the last film of it's kind. Despite I not being a big fan of mythological films I went into 2010's CLASH OF THE TITANS, hoping that for any reason at all, that I just might like the film. Having recently watched surely the first film is the PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS film series, it was no surprise that all of the Gods who were present in that film, are present here(after all, the are who they are), but call me stupid, but I was surprised that the films' two stories bore such a close resemblance. Here Perseus is a Demigod(where as Percy was too - except, I believe he was said to be the son of Poseidon, the God of the sea), who also happens to be put in a predicament in which the fate of mankind depends on him, in which during his journey was pitted against various unknown creatures, both even having their own showdown with the dreaded, snake headed Medusa. With that said, despite not expecting much from it, I actually liked PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS : THE LIGHTNING THIEF, because I thought of it as a new, fresh take on the subject, and that I found the characters to be kinda of likable overall. For me, CLASH OF THE TITANS was the exact opposite, the story is very by the numbers and the film's characters and accompanying relationships are thinly developed, almost to the point where it is pretty much backseat fodder to the film's CGI effects. Every since the filmmakers rushed just 10 weeks before release to convert this 2D film into 3D in post production in hopes to cash in on some of the money in which 3D film AVATAR had recently brought in, it was clear that the film had only one purpose, an that was to be one that relied on being primarily a visual film and not one of any kind of substance. With that, the film does succeed on that level as it as visually pleasing, in which one could watch it with out even knowing much about the story, just for the sake of seeing the effects. But as for getting an engaging story out of CLASH OF THE TITANS, I can't say that I did, and i'm not too sure that will either. This film is more or less a digital playground and the talent such as Worthington, Neeson and Fines are just along with the ride, phoning in the best possible performances that they could muster. Overall, this film is only good for the visuals, but then again, that is only my opinion. |
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| GORE
METER 2.5/10 There are a few dry kills, some of which involve impalement as well as a beheading. Most are more suggestive than they are graphic. |
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MUSICAL
SCORE 4/10The score in is an ambitious action/adventure score, one that I thought fit the film's overall tone quite nicely. | ||||
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM I know my review doesn't sound all that "involved", and I do apologize. The truth is that I never did get into this film for whatever reason. Seeing as I am not big on CGI, that could very well be it, because after all, about 80% of CLASH OF THE TITANS is indeed CGI animated and created. To me, it's just more visual fluff to add to the huge amount that is already being fed to us these days, and nothing beyond that. There have been some engaging CGI films, that do offer character and story as well as it's visuals(I for one, do like the TRANSFORMERS series), but as for this film, it doesn't actually deliver on all of those points. There is a sequel to this film already in the works, but sadly, I can't say that i'm truly looking forward to it. Special Features include - Maximum Movie Mode: Harnessing the Gods, with Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, and director Louis Leterrier and enhanced picture-in-picture; enhanced scene breakdowns; enhanced VFX breakdowns; on-the-spot vignettes; close-up views of the Kraken, the Scorpiochs, Medusa, stuntwork, filming locales, and more - Sam Worthington: An Action Hero for the Ages - Alternate ending: Perseus confronts Zeus on Mount Olympus - Additional scenes - Standard Definition copy of the movie on DVD(Combo Pack) This film will be released on DVD/Blu-Ray on July 27, 2010 |
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