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- Blu-ray: Clash of the Titans (2010)
- Rating: PG-13
- Starring: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Feinnes
- Written By: Travis Beachum
- Directed By: Louis Leterrier
- Distributor: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
- Original Year of Release: 2010
- Extras: See Below
- Series:
Clash of the Titans Blu-Ray Review
Action Aplenty but Empty Remake By
Tim Janson
July 26, 2010
Sam Worthington in Clash of the Titans
© Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Clash of the Titans is a remake of the 1981 film of the same name. While many consider the original to be a classic, it has been elevated to a loftier position in history than it likely deserves. It was a good film made great by the stop-motion animation of Ray Harryhausen. That said, the remake isn’t great either…it’s not even good. It dumbs down the plot of the original in order to make room for a near endless series of CGI effects.
Perseus (Sam Worthington) is the half God son of Zeus (Liam Neeson) who is cast in the sea as an infant by his father Acrisius who despises Zeus. He’s found and adopted by Spyros and his wife who raise him to adulthood. Perseus and his family are caught in the crossfire when the city of Argos declares war on the Gods by destroying a statue of Zeus. When King Kepheus and Queen Cassiopeia of Argos dare to compare themselves to the Gods, Zeus decides it’s time to punish the mortals by unleashing his brother Hades (Ralph Feinnes) on Argos . Hades tells King Kepheus that he will destroy Argos in ten days unless his daughter Princess Andromeda (Alexa Davalos) is sacrificed to the terrible beast of myth called the Kraken. Along with several soldiers of Argos , Perseus sets off on a quest to visit the Stygian Witches and find a way to defeat the Kraken and save the Princess. Along the way they will battle giant scorpions, The Medusa, and Calibos who is actually Perseus’ father Acrisius, now horribly disfigured but given great powers by Hades in order to kill Perseus.
Director Louis Leterrier claims he only watched the original once—He should have watched it a few more times. All of the intrigue and maneuvering of the Gods from the original film is completely cast aside in the remake. In the 1981 film, Calibos was the handsome son of the Goddess Thetis. When Calibos kills Zeus’ stable of Pegasi, he turns Calibos into a monster. Thetis then seeks revenge against Perseus. This interplay between the Gods as they use mortals as mere chess pieces is one of the film’s strengths. Leterrier gives us none of that. Other than Zeus and Hades, the rest of the Olympian Gods are window dressing, standing atop their pedestals like cheap bowling trophies. Other than Apollo, most of the rest are not even referred to by name leaving you to call on your high school Mythology class to figure out which one is Hera, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Demeter, and so on…As it turns out, most of these scenes were left on the cutting room floor but you can see them in the Deleted Scenes menu on the Blu-Ray.
There’s not so much a story as there are a string of scenes wedged together. We go from Perseus finding a magic sword to finding a (black!) Pegasus, to he and the soldiers fighting Calibos, then fighting giant scorpions, then being saved by Djinn! That’s right I said Djinn. For some reason Leterrier thought it might be a great idea to mix in some Middle Eastern mythology because, evidently, Greek mythology isn’t rich enough to stand on its own.
Sam Worthington cuts a more imposing figure for the action sequences than the dandified Harry Hamlin but he has about as much charisma as a bowl of Grape Nuts. Sam, showing a little emotion every now and then won’t kill ya! Liam Neeson is always good but plays a very different Zeus than the more cerebral and refined portrayal of Lawrence Olivier. The one performance that stood out was Feinnes as a crooked, rasping, dark-hearted Hades.
It might be considered sacrilege but some of the CGI effects look better than the stop-motion effects. For one thing, the Pegasus actually looks like its flying rather than just running on air. The Kraken was certainly more terrifying, particularly since Harryhausen modeled his on the creature he used previously in “20 Million Miles to Earth”.
Clash of the Titans (2010) is a perfect example of what happens when you try to fit a story around special effects instead of the other way around.
Blu-Ray Extras
The overall grade of the Blu-ray is boosted with a solid set of extras.
The Blu-Ray features Warner’s Maximum Movie Mode which has quickly become a favorite of mine. You view the movie with a combined audio and video commentary, picture-in-picture style. Features interviews and comments by the cast, crew and Director, The mode allows you to pause the film and go to one of several focus point featurettes. You can also view these separately from the Special Features menu. The Focus points run 35:00 and spotlight Perseus, Zeus, Hades, Calibos, Medusa, and the Kraken.
Sam Worthington An Action Hero for the Ages (8:00) Worthington did all of his own stunt work and this takes a look at the various grueling sequences he worked on.
Alternate Ending (5:20) The alternate ending is far less happy than the original as Perseus confronts Zeus and the other Gods in Olympus.
Deleted Scenes (18:00) You will want to see the deleted scenes as their inclusion would have helped the story a great deal. We get many more scenes of the other Gods speaking and plotting. We see them all debate about what to do about the Humans as Poseidon and Ares are all for harsh punishment while the female deities are more forgiving.
One deleted scene finds Apollo talking privately with Zeus and warning him not to trust Hades. Another features Apollo meeting with his sister Artemis and discussing Zeus. There’s also a scene where Apollo speaks with Perseus after he visits the witches and gives him the gold coin to pay Charon the boatman. In the final cut, he was replaced by Zeus.
We also see the Gods all begin to get weak and finally collapse as the Kraken attacks Argos and Hades grows stronger.
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Tim Janson: "Clash of the Titans (2010) is a perfect example of what happens when you try to fit a story around special effects instead of the other way around."
The bottom line is no soul. It's the scenes between the action set pieces that will make you care about the characters. It just felt like everyone was going through the motions marching to arrive at the next cgi shot so they could check it off the list.
The real greek tragedy is this movie should have been good. I enjoyed the Medusa & Kracken scenes. Ralph Fiennes is solid as the villian. Liam Neeson needed more screen time, but always holds my interest.
If or should I say when they do a sequel please add more character development, more fun, & a hell of alot more heart.