Remaking a film that was heralded as a milestone in special effects in a previous era isn’t the genius stroke that studios must think it is. When the original Clash of the Titans came out back in 1981, it had some special effects that wowed audiences and helped bolster it as a fantasy film for the ages. The exceptional visuals paired with a classic story from mythology helped make it a powerful piece of film canon. It makes you wonder, what could a remake hope to achieve? Compared to the 1980s when special effects still relied on models to create some of its best wizardry, today’s age of CGI makes anything done back then look downright primitive. Furthermore, it has reached the point where even the smallest studio can cook up decent special effects courtesy of a laptop. In short, special effects bonanzas are no longer the rarity they were in the 1980s – they’ve become tentpoles of the major studio lineups. If you’re going to remake a film that was a groundbreaking special effects piece in a previous era without employing something that modern audiences have never seen, you’re just wasting everyone’s time.
Clash of the Titans tells the tale of Perseus who bubbled up from the sea in a chest and found by a poor fisherman who raised him as his own. The boy grew into a man in a tumultuous time in the age of gods and men. Fed up with the state of the world, man has turned its back on the gods, refusing them the prayers the gods feed upon. To revitalize the source of their power, the gods wage war on mankind, sending all manner of gigantic beasts to lay waste and force their creations to repent. In the first public act of defiance against the gods, Perseus’s father is killed leading our hero to take up a reluctant position with the human army; a position which will thrust Perseus into the center of the conflict and reveal his true lineage as the son of Zeus.
How does the son of the king of gods fare in a war between humanity and deity? It’s not easy. Nor does it really matter.
Any semblance of story goes out the window after the first 30 minutes in favor of non-stop action sequences featuring chases, monstrosities, and Liam Neeson as Zeus saying “Release the Kraken!”, which may be the only reason you need to watch the film. The special effects are certainly massive in their undertaking, but are they really so mindblowing in the scope of what we’ve already seen? Not at all. Warner Brothers has updated a classic fantasy film by doing little more than cutting and pasting newer, more expensive action sequences over the old ones, and it’s no better for it – it might actually be worse.
Sam Worthington is a fine actor, and he more than fills the shoes necessary to keep an action and adventure story running at full speed. He’s overqualified for what Clash of the Titans requires. Everyone attached to the film is, and it leaves you wondering why they bothered front loading a film whose entire emphasis is on special effects with such a capable cast including Mads Mikkelson, Jason Flemyng, Gemma Arterton, Danny Huston, Pete Postlethwaite, and Ralph Fiennes. And it’s not just the cast. Director Louis Leterrier knows his way around an action scene. When his first feature film The Transporter burst onto the scene with Jason Statham kicking serious amounts of ass, he cemented himself as a capable helmer. His touch shines through in the more carefully choreographed sequences of Clash of the Titans, but for the most part his nuance is drowned out by the visuals with all the subtlety of the rolling boulder in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The giant monsters just lumber forward. Warriors run about slashing, punching and kicking. People die. Some live. None of the action has any detail to make you smile and say “Awesome.” The whole film is about overwhelming your desire to see something cool instead of satisfying it in any real way.
Without question the film looks great in high-definition, but that’s all you can say about the film anyways. It looks great. It sounds great. But there’s nothing there to really make you appreciate it. It’s noise and moving pictures and nothing else more, despite having the directorial and acting force in its coffers to make it one of the more impressive big-budget exercises of recent memory.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
Warner Brothers gives Clash of the Titans the full-blown commentary treatment with the increasingly typical picture-in-picture track featuring opinions and anecdotes from the cast and director. If you find yourself getting tired of the vapid dialogue in the film, turn on this version instead, as you get the visuals and something interesting to listen to. There are a few behind the scenes featurettes, pieces on special effects sequences, and in-depth looks at the creation of the more notable beasts in the film. Then you have some location-based featurettes talking about how and why they chose to film where they did and then they pretty much answer the same questions about Sam Worthington. Why was he perfect for the role (even though a chimp in armor could have played the part)? Finally, you can watch the alternate ending where Perseus confronts Zeus on Olympus. The disc is decidedly loaded on the extras front, and even includes a digital copy.
"Clash of the Titans" is on sale August 27, 2010 and is rated PG13. Action, Adventure. Directed by Louis Leterrier. Written by Travis Beacham and Phil Hay & Matt Manfredi. Starring Danny Huston, Gemma Arterton, Jason Flemyng, Liam Neeson, Mads Mikkelsen, Pete Postlethwaite, Ralph Fiennes, Sam Worthington.
