Clash of the Titans

Clash of the Titans (2010)
Starring: Sam Worthington

General Overview:
Clash of the Titans is a remake of a 1980s film which was based around the Greek mythology of Perseus, son of Zeus. The original film boasted incredible special effects for the time and was a fairly large film of the day. The new film manages to keep up with the old one and make it a little larger, though it doesn’t really deviate much from the old film.

Acting:
A cast of mostly unknowns, Sam Worthington and Liam Neeson are the main acting draws to the film. Sam Worthington has been gathering spotlight with his success in Terminator Salvation and Avatar. In my honest opinion, Sam Worthington feels the same in each film I’ve seen him in. He has some glimmer of talent, but cannot seem to break away from acting a certain way. He does do a good job in Clash of the Titans, but it is hard to connect with the character of Perseus and I believe part of it is in Worthington’s portrayal of the character. It felt more like Worthington was used as a selling draw as opposed to an acting draw. With time and more work under his belt, Worthington has the potential of being a very good actor, but right now lacks depth in his portrayals of characters.

Gemma Arterton
Gemma plays the character of Io, another demi-god cursed with agelessness who has been watching over Perseus his whole life. After searching her on IMDB, it became apparent that she is quite new to the acting scene, however, she did a much better job in her role than I feel Sam Worthington did. Her character felt like there was depth and connection and the character feels more real than Perseus did. Gemma had some of the more emotional scenes in the film and pulled them off more believably than Worthington did.

Overall Acting:
The film was made up of mostly unknowns who did very well at their jobs. Liam Neeson obviously added a fair bit of acting weight by portraying Zeus and did one of the better jobs at the character than others have in the past. Alexa Davalos portrayed Andromeda and though she had very few scenes, did an incredible job. She was one of the most believable characters in the film and there was a lot of good emotion behind her character.

Cinematography:
Originally shot in 2D this film was transfered to 3D after the fact. I saw the film in 3D and though not overly 3D, it was pretty good. Other films in 3D were better, however, this was the first fully live-action film I have seen in 3D and it came off quite well in that respect, looking better in 3D than Up did.
The filming was really good though. There was a nice arrange of different shot angles and some fantastic long shots of the locations they shot at. They didn’t fall into the trap of common shooting where it looks like standard shots on a tripod and for that I am quite pleased. Seeing a director change things up and put their own imagination to work adds to the quality to the film. Another fact that I quite like is how it was pretty much all shot on location and they went all over the world to shoot the film. It does a terrific job of displaying one of the greatest film sets we have available, the Earth itself.
The sound was fairly impressive, especially where there were all sorts of creatures and monsters. One of my favorites is the roar of the Kraken which was utterly awesome in a theatre surround sound system. They did a great job of making the sound come at you from all directions so you feel more a part of the film.
The CGI is really good, the monster are quite believable and the interior of Olympus was really cool, incorporating styles from the old film but making it more “god-like” such as the map of earth on the ground.

Story:
A fairly basic story, I feel a lot of the hiccups in the film are here, especially in the first half. The story seems to rush through until about half way through the film. A lot happens too fast and it feels like the only reason it happened was so that the characters could do something later on. The death of Perseus’ family was quick and unemotional. More time should have been devoted into developing these characters so you could feel Perseus’ loss and hatred of the gods. Once the film reaches about halfway through though, things start to feel more on track and less rushed. The story does become predictable as to who is going to die, who is going to be resurrected so it loses points there.

Conclusion
Despite the fallbacks of the film, it is a fun film to watch. It doesn’t have the deeper meanings and artistic forms of some films, but is definitely better than a lot of films on the market. This film is best watched if you simply want to go to the cinema and relax and just have fun watching a film. If you’re going to be looking at it for deeper connections or intend to watch it critically, then you will be grossly disappointed by it.

7/10

Sounds good. I might watch it in the cinema if it's a realistic Greek mythological film. The genre has been tarnished by too many hack works.

Gemma Arterton is a good actress. She has played a bond girl, I believe. The first time I saw here was on a TV production of Tess of the D'Urbevilles and she was very good as the leading role, even if her Devon accent was a little too Dorset, if you know what I mean.

well, I wouldn't say it's realistic to mythology, it's definitely much better than most of the myth films, but it's more a direct remake of the original film than it is a telling of the original myth. it's an action film so you have to expect that some. I dunno, it was just a fun flick to watch for kicks. I may get to see the losers here soon so i'll review that, but....we are now 1 week away from IM2!!! (Except you stupid brits who get it this week)

Woohoo! That means I can avoid watching it a week earlier than you!

well, the early reviews are coming in and naturally they are very negative. You can't expect aything less of a sequel to a very popular film. Early negative reviews of a big film usually means it's good I find, but I intend to review it right after I see it

they compare it too much to the first, which is usually the most awesome in the series. also, go iron man!!!

I just saw Iron Man 2, it was pretty good. There were some obvious plot holes, some other stuff that didn't make sense and some obvious effect show offs (when he was playing around with the 3D model), but other than that it was good. I loved the effects, the story was alright and the acting was pretty good.

I definitely want to buy IM1 now, it could explain some stuff i didn't get and if it's better than this one according to the reviewers, it's got to be quite frakking awesome.

If I had a way to the city, staff members of the theatre are invited to pre-screen it Wednesday in the Imax. I'd love to go but I can't get there, so guess I'll just have to wait and screen it here either thursday or friday, whenever the print gets made up

You're not a driver/learner?

no, i been meaning to learn how to drive for nearly 4 years

I suppose you could cycle if desperate, though.

the city is an hour's drive away, i would have to be really desperate to go biking

Ah, ok. hehe.

Oh, by the way, everything is pointing at an avengers movie. I mean... S.H.I.E.L.D, documents titled ''The avengers initiative'', a recommendation to have iron man in the avengers, the ending of the hulk, it's all there.

yeah, the movie is supposed to be a build-up, as is the Thor film, Captain America, Ant Man, Marvel's doing cool stuff by making their films like the comics such that they all connect (with the exception of gay-ass teeny bopper Spider-Man reboot)

Yea, clash was okay. I expected a bit more, maybe close to Avatar. but it was pretty cool!

well, Avatar is in its own ball park, at least technologically it is