Clash Of The Titans

Go ahead and release your inner Kraken.

Sam Worthington stars as Perseus – the adopted son of a fisherman rescued from the ocean when he was a small boy. How did he end up in the ocean? It turns out his father is Zeus (Liam Neeson), who knocked up the Queen, so the King dumped her into the ocean, along with Perseus (Sandra Bullock is considering the same for Jesse James). After that kind of abandonment, you can understand why Perseus is not a fan of his real daddy or any of the gods (I’m sure he would also hate Jesse James).

Now, our hero finds himself in the middle of a massive war. The people are angry with the gods, and have started revolting. Zeus wants them to love him, not the King and Queen, so he conspires with Hades (Ralph Fiennes) to scare them into praying to Zeus once again. In the middle of all of this, Hades ends up killing Perseus’s adopted daddy, so Perseus wants revenge. It’s as complicated as an episode of The Young and The Restless.

Does Perseus have what it takes to defeat the gods?

I know we have already heard a great deal of criticism and hate for Clash Of The Titans, but I can name 10 worse movies that have come out this year (yes, I’m looking at you Miley Cyrus and Gerard Butler). Ultimately, it doesn’t stink because the movie delivers some decent action scenes and the various monsters Perseus must challenge look amazingly realistic.

Director Louis Leterrier and the three person writing team (based on the original movie by Beverley Cross) certainly don’t waste alot of toner on the script. Dialogue and storytelling are not the focus of Clash Of The Titans. It’s a movie full of action where Perseus seems to be moving from level to level as if this was a video game. He conquers one monster. Then, he goes on to the next (acquiring new weapons along the way).

Sadly, some of the action is blurry and hard to follow. Leterrier didn’t originally shoot the film in 3D (the format I saw it in), so those of you who pay attention to these things will see the imperfections of the transfer to 3D, but it’s more than that. He needs to better focus on the combatants in fights, and slow the action down a bit, so the audience can see what is happening. Sure, he might have relied on the blurriness to cover up flaws and weaknesses of the choreography and the ability of the participants to carry out the choreography, but I’d rather see Leterrier work on improving it, rather than trying to hide it.

Also, Leterrier rushes the big climax. After hearing all about The Kraken, you expect a more exciting and complicated battle. The same can be said for the showdown with Hades. Since the special effects are fantastic and The Kraken is one of the best, evil, nasty creatures you have ever seen on screen, we should get more. Worthington is up to the task of being our hero, so let him be heroic in a stunning, emotional way.

Right now, you are probably thinking I have dumped a great deal of criticism on a movie I supposedly liked, but I do like it enough and we have a basic plot to follow.

Clash of the Titans is rated PG-13 for fantasy action violence, some frightening images and brief sensuality.