Remaking the 1981 Ray Harryhausen special effects classic, Clash Of The Titans brings the ancient Greek action film up to speed with startling special effects and a retrofitted 3-D conversion, but it’s not all as successful as the original.
Born by god Zeus (Neeson), but raised on earth as a man, after Perseus (Worthington) is helpless to save his family from being killed under a reign of terror from god of the underworld, Hades (Fiennes), he leads a dangerous mission to save earth and wreak vengeance on those to blame for his family’s death.
With Louis Leterrier at the helm, Clash OF The Titans was always going to have solid set-pieces to rely on, but whether the story and narrative would stand up was the question. On a journey across forbidden worlds, Perseus and crew come up against unimaginable creatures but there isn’t enough to the plot inbetween the all-action battles.
The film plays out in a very episodic nature; fight a creature, roam across the land, fight another creature, and though Clash Of The Titans is a whole lot of fun at times, it’s a very hollow experience.
The pretty visuals, however, are just that. Each CGI monster, down to the final showdown with the Kraken, are a fine example of what technology can bring to a film in the modern times, and the realism a whole bunch of pixels can capture. Gamers will recall memories of taking down the hulking behemoths in PS2 title Shadow Of The Colossus, and that’s never a bad thing for a film. With the fight to the death nature of each battle, there’s a lot of fun to be had with Clash Of The Titans, though the hollow nature isn’t the only flaw.
Sam Worthington has already confirmed himself as a real big name in the future of Hollywood but in this he’s largely wasted and likewise Liam Neeswon is a gross mismatch as Zeus. More perplexing, however, is Nicholas Hoult, seemingly walking in straight off the set of A Single Man, with a bizarre camp demeanour, failing entirely to pull off his timid soldier role.
Converted to 3-D in post-production, the extra dimension is a similar waste of time. On Avatar, James Cameron tailored every scene to the 3-D experience, and even then is was superfluous, so with a film where such was only an afterthought, the studio would have been better giving editors longer to inject more life into the testing plot.
Clash Of The Titans is not all doom and gloom, but Louis Leterrier, a director that once showed such great promise on The Transporter, should be doing much better with such a huge budget, and great acting talent. There are plenty of moments of fun and excitement, but the extent to which the film drags its heels in between, is ultimately its undoing.
★★★★★