Movie Review: Clash of the Titans

I think I enjoyed "Clash of the Titans" more than I had any right to. I went into the film expecting a certain kind of film, and I left knowing my expectations were met.

"Clash of the Titans" isn't high art, it's high camp, a B-movie splendor that probably won't be remembered in the next month or so when movies like "Iron Man 2" come out, but it'll do for the moment.

I never saw the original "Clash of the Titans" so don't expect this review to be any kind of comparison. I have however seen my share of Ray Harryhausen movies such as "Jason and The Argonauts", and "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad". Harryhausen was a wizard with stop motion special effects that brought more to the imagination than the computer generated schlock you see today. The original "Clash of the Titans" was the last film to use Harryhausen's unique special effects, and I encourage anyone who hasn't seen any of his movies, to go see them.

Now let's get to this new updated version shall we. The new "Clash of the Titans" is the story of Perseus (Sam Worthington) a demi-God who's father is Zeus (Liam Neeson) and who's mother was mortal. When the humans start to rebel against the Gods, Zeus along with his brother Hades (Ralph Feinnes) think it's about time to teach them a lesson. By the way, Hades is still sore at Zeus for sending him to rule the underworld, so he's concocted his own plan to get back at him. While all this God stuff is going on, Perseus is mankind's only hope, he leads a small band of soldiers to find a way to kill the God's most powerful weapon against mankind, a giant sea monster known as The Kracken. On their way to the underworld, the men run into their fair share of giant scorpions, desert people who look like they are made of rock, witches with one eye they carry in the palm of their hand, and Medusa, that snake like woman who turns men to stone just by her stare.

There isn't much originality in "Clash of the Titans" look or feel, it owes more than a debt to not only Ray Harryhausen's original vision, but also "Star Wars", and "Lord of the Rings" as well. What saves "Clash of the Titans" for me is how it seems to know this, there is a wink of acknowledgement from the film's director Louis Leterrier by his way of not treating this as anything more than a big budget B-movie.

Leterrier lacks the grandeur and the scope of a James Cameron or a Peter Jackson, but he does have a playful sensibility and is able to create crowd pleasing set pieces. The cast also seems to have fun playing along, Worthington plays it smart and maintains a status of an everyman action hero in the film. Neeson and Feinnes also seem to have fun hamming it up as the Greek Gods, unfortunately they aren't given much to do other than talk a lot about the silly humans who's lives they are making horrible.

I saw the film in 2-D which is the way it was originally intended, and most of the critics who are blasting it seem to have only seen it in 3-D, so do yourself a favour save some money and see it the way it was originally filmed, you'll probably enjoy it more.

I would put "Clash of the Titans" as a humble little blockbuster, that will probably dry those salivating mouths just long enough for the summer movie season to begin. You may not gain any IQ points while watching this movie, but if giant scorpions are your thing, than I say enjoy.