Box Office Review - Clash of the Titans

There was a major foul-up at the screening I went to for Clash of the Titans. The lights went down, and the trailer for Clash of the Titans began to play. After another trailer the movie started and Sam Worthington voice came on talking about being in a VA hospital. The theatre was playing Avatar instead of Clash of the Titans. After about ten minutes the right movie began playing. At the end of Clash of the Titans I wished that Avatar had stayed on. It is a much better Sam Worthington movie. I don’t hold the original Clash up on any kind of pedestal like some do. There are some interesting special effects, but the movie is long and kind of boring. The remake takes things in a different direction, and it just doesn’t work. The movie feels like an unfinished cut. For the first half an hour I couldn’t have told you what the movie was doing. Information is forced upon the audience without any build up or base to be built off of. Basically Perseus (Sam Worthington) is found in a box that is fished out of the ocean by Spyros (Peter Postlethwaite). Perseus grows up being raised by Spyros and his wife. One day when they are travelling past a massive statue of Zeus it topples into the sea because soldiers cut it down. Hades shows up and kills all of the soldiers and throws a fire ball at Spyros boat. Perseus is the only survivor. He gets to the city of Argos, and it turns out that man doesn’t want to worship the God’s anymore. Zeus is pissed about this so he lets Hades and his giant Kraken loose on the earth. Hades shows up at the castle of Argos and tells them that they have to sacrifice Princess Andromeda or the Kraken will destroy the city. Hades then tells Perseus that he is a Demi-God, a son of Zeus. Perseus hates the God’s, and now his real father so he sets off on a quest to find a way to kill the Kraken. That is the set up for the premise of the story and it just does not work. Perseus is a one dimensional character, and the audience is supposed to follow him on his journey. The entire movie he is mad because he is the son of Zeus. The character was not likable and provided no grounds for a movie to be based around him. The God’s are barely in the movie and are inconsistent in their attitude for humanity. Zeus hates all humans as well as Perseus, but then he seems to have an inexplicable change of heart and gives Zeus a special sword which he refuses to use. As for the action in the movie, it did nothing for me. The giant scorpion fight was okay, but nothing new or original. The greatest sin of an action movie is that the action sucks. To be fair, I am trying to think of something positive to say about the movie. The best part would have to be the character Lo played by Gemma Arterton. Lo is an immortal (kind of) who has been protecting Perseus his entire life. She had the most interesting action scenes and was the only character that had a good relationship with Perseus. Aside from her character this movie is a real mess and a big disappointment. If you have the choice, see Avatar again.

Banana Peel