Clash of the Titans remake

[Pkmatrix]

I actually saw this on Saturday, but I've been avoiding posting a review since then...largely because I made a point to defend this film in the past, and the result was so disappointing. It wasn't a bad movie, IMO, just disappointing and...well...rather forgettable in many respects.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

What I liked:

1. The Visual FX were great! The Kraken, the Giant Scorpions, Olympus, Argos, the entire Zeus statue and Harpies sequence... there's a lot to love about the visuals here. The one downside is that, overall, the creatures here didn't get much individual personality, however I think that's an overall problem for the film (I'll get to that later) and not a problem specific to the them.

2. As different as this version was from the original in places, I was surprised by how much of the original made it into here. The second half of both films follow the same basic sequence: Go to the witches, go to Medusa, fly back to save Andromeda from the Kraken. Considering there are some remakes that don't bother to be even that faithful to the original, it made me a bit happy.

3. Liam Neeson and Alexa Davalos did great jobs, IMHO. I really liked their characterizations of Zeus and Andromeda in this version, both different from the 1981 version but definitely worthwhile interpretations in their own right.

4. The Giant Scorpion fight was, IMO, the best sequence in the film. As badass as the Kraken and Medusa sequences were, the fight with the scorpions was just the best paced, had the most action, and one of the few places I felt real tension. That it came as early as it did, IMO, is another of the film's flaws though.

What I didn't like:

1. The imposition of an anti-religious subtext/subplot was unnecessary, distracting, and at times outright RIDICULOUS. It's one thing to have Cepheus and Cassiopeia to be so full of hubris that they compare themselves to Gods, but trying to literally go to war with Zeus?! WTH? The same with Perseus: to have him be shocked that he is Zeus' son is one thing, but to be effectively an atheist in a world where the existence of the Gods is a demonstrable fact? I knew we would have a problem when, from the third scene, we have Perseus' adoptive father rambling about how much he hates the Gods and wishes someone would "take a stand". WTH? Where does ANY of that fit into Greek mythology? This stuff never belonged in the film, and the cartwheels the plot needs to make in order to jam it in hurts the story tremendously. I was so distracted by it, I had a hard time just enjoying the movie.

2. The changes to the storyline. Now, I don't have a problem with changing the plot - this is a different film, with different ideas, so it's understandable that the story would change (as I mentioned earlier, I was happily surprised by how much of the original remained). HOWEVER, in this case I generally didn't like most of the changes to the plot and thought several of them were idiotic choices. Why cut the original opening sequence, when it would've let you have a great action scene early on? Why completely remove the Andromeda-Perseus love story, the heart of the original plot (and the POINT of Calibus' character)? Why remove Helen, Mercury, and Athena in favor of Hades? As mentioned earlier, a good chunk of the changes seem to be caused by the filmmakers forcing in the anti-religious subtext, and that upsets me even more - it seriously hurt the film.

3. They cut Bubo! I was 100% expecting them to turn Bubo into a badass divine Owl mecha and give him a cool action sequence. You have no idea how disappointed I was by this.

4. Io. I can see where this character came from: in order to fit their "war against the Gods" subplot, they had to remove most of the Olympus storyline and the sympathetic Gods/Goddess, thus Io was created to replace Helen/Athena/Mercury and fill their roles in the story. Now, it's one thing to change the plot, however it's ANOTHER to make such dramatic changes to the original myth - specifically, having Perseus reject Andromeda and couple him with Io. WTH?! What was the POINT of even including Andromeda at all then?! I still felt for the character - a credit to Alexa Davalos' acting - but, dammit, the entire Argos storyline comes off as pointless if Perseus doesn't really care about Argos or Andromeda!

5. Calibus. I said a while back that I would ultimately rate this film based on upon how they treated Calibus, who IMO was the most complex character in the original film. Well, here they definitely screwed him over: he went from being the tormented and scorned ex-lover of Andromeda to a generic baddie with vague motives (atop that the changed the very nature of who he was). The movie gets a huge thumb down for this alone.

6. The characters in general were just flat. Everyone was one-dimensional and uninteresting - Perseus hates the Gods, the soldiers accompanying Perseus are indistinguishable, Io has no personality - there characters were so BLAH that, this more than anything, will usher this movie out of anyone's memory by the end of the Summer (if not BY the Summer). Speaking of Perseus again - the fact that he HATES THE GODS makes him ultimately accepting Zeus' gifts (the sword and Pegasus) just comes off as ridiculous - you can't have it both ways! Either you do one or the other, dammit! He never changes his views, just ultimately says "Screw it, I'm using the weapons anyway." UGH.

Overall, I think I'd give it a flat 5 out of 10. The movie wasn't BAD, but it was flat, poorly written, and forgettable. Better to watch the original, or the God of War movie (when it eventually comes out).

PS:

I liked the black Pegasus!

[Dr Kain]

[msweets13]

[heroforhirerob]

[ultrazilla2000]

[RapZiLLa54]

I like Sam Worthington but I hated how his character was basically Marcus Wright from Terminator. After seeing Avatar this was definately a step down for him.

Terminator Character: What am I? You're a machine. NO!!!!!!!!! I hate machines, I will do this as a man.

Perseus Character: What am I? You're a Demi God. NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gods killed my family, I hate the Gods, I will do this as a man.


I mean seriously........ lol

[MouthForWar]

If anyone wants to see Harryhausen's FIRST reaction of the CoT remake (caught on film at the King Kong premiere it looks like), here it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4K4I59jUTs

And the film did nothing but prove him right. I can't see this trashy remake being shown in schools as a teaching tool in various subjects 20 years from now.

[TheMaster]

[Green Dragon]

[Dr Kain]

[RapZiLLa54]

[Pkmatrix]

[msweets13]

This is a fantastic read that explains a lot of the prevalent problems in Clash and proves that there is a director's cut of the film that makes infinitely more sense. Why they changed so much of the movie at the last minute makes no sense in my opinion.

Check it out here at CHUD:

[jellydonut25]

[TheMaster]

[Pkmatrix]

[MouthForWar]

[jellydonut25]

[TheMaster]

[TheMaster]

[jellydonut25]

[Pkmatrix]

[metal_bryan]

[jellydonut25]

[Dr Kain]