Ed's Review Dot Com

Warner Brothers Pictures,  Legendary Pictures

Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Jason Flemyng, Gemma Arterton, Alexa Davalos

There was a 1981 version of Clash of the Titans which was a pretty awesome film for the time.  But the story, though similar in parts, is a lot different than the 2010 version, so I wouldn’t call this a remake.  Perhaps more of a “revisit”.  As a person who knows enough about Roman theology (mythology) to answer a few trivia questions now and then, I can’t tell you which one is truer to the actual stories, but this one appears to be.  But that aside, it was time for an update with today’s special effects technology.  This was a total visual overload!  Gone are the days of monsters in rubber suits.  These monsters and freaks have a real personality!

The story begins in the Greek city of Argos where people are beginning to rebel against the gods.  It seems they’ve figured out that the gods depend on the people’s belief and prayers for their power, and if people don’t believe in them anymore, they lose their power.  Our hero, Perseus was born half man, half god but was saved under extremely odd circumstances from an early death and raised by a fisherman and his wife.  Naturally big things are set for Perseus and he will have to choose to become god or man.  His parents are killed by Hades, the god of the underworld and that helps his choice along a bit.  Throughout his awesome adventure, he keeps choosing to refuse the help of the gods and do it as a man.  He meets some strange friends and allies along the way, and fights some awesome enemies, until a final showdown with Hades and the Kracken which are some well developed bad guys!

As I mentioned before, the special effects are awesome and the scenery is breathtaking.  The places they go seem real, and the giant scorpions, the Djin (a race of ex-human nomad sorcerers who live in the desert), and the flying horses, especially Pegasus are totally believable!  But the battle with Medusa, the snake headed woman is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.  Really well done special effects.

The final battle erupts and once again, it takes your breath away.   This is an exciting adventure.  It’s got a lot of meat in the story and plenty going on for adults outside of the battles, and the younger kids are going to be able to have plenty of action to keep them interested.  It’s probably not too good for little kids, (hence the PG-13) because it has some gory battle scenes and some of the monsters may be pretty intense for them, but for older children and adults, this is a great family film.

If I had any criticism, I guess it would be Zeus.  I had a hard time with the choice of Liam Neeson as Zeus, not because he’s not a great actor, but simply because he’s so recognizable.  I found this one thing distracting.  He is a great actor, but the way he played Zeus was not very godlike.  He seemed weak and way too gentle?  Where’s the fierceness?   But Zeus is not a very big part in the film, and it was only midly distracting to me.  Otherwise, it was a very engaging story.  I couldn’t look away for the nearly 2 hours it took to watch it.   (Note:  The way Zeus is portrayed may not be Liam’s fault.  According to the IMDB.COM FAQ which I checked after writing this review,  in the original cut of the film, Zeus was much less sympathetic than the ended up in the final cut).

This is a great film to watch on DVD as well.  The picture is so clear that not much is lost in the transition to small screen.  If you like action adventure, hero stories, this is one the best I have seen.  I thought it was on par with Lord of the Rings quality-wise, and well worth the watch!

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog