I must admit I wasn't expecting much to begin with when I went to see this remake of the 1981 classic, but even so, the film was underwhelming. Made in typical cash-cow style that dominates Hollywood remakes, the film pays too much attention to the action and graphics and not enough to the characters or the mythology. It's one of those films that assumes a certain viewership demographic and goes for it. As such, it is riddled with unimpressive acting and predictable dialogue. This is not to say it will not be successful financially, as there will be scores of people signing up to see the Kraken monster in 3D.The story is based on Greek and Nordic mythology. In a time when humans start to rebel against Olympus, the Gods decide to teach their creations a lesson by unleashing a Titan that would set havoc on them. The plan is that the Gods will intervene and save the humans, which will inspire them to go back to their devout ways and pray to the Gods. The prayers are important as they keep the Gods immortal. The twist in the story is that there is a demi-God among the humans named Perseus who has a personal score to settle with Hades. Hades, on the other hand, has his own agenda involving Zeus and the rest of the Olympians. For vengeance, Perseus ends up traveling the ancient world killing one famous creature after another to destroy the Gods' plans, while Hades makes his underground agreements to get his dream. Still reading? Good.
As you can tell, the story is actually quite elaborate, and considering the depth that exists in Greek mythology, it could have been turned into a fully-fledged fantasy world. There were some moments in the film where Leterrier obviously tried to emulate the Lord of the Rings feel cinematically, but overall, the film cannot create the sense of disbelief that Peter Jackson had so masterfully accomplished in his trilogy. Instead, Leterrier's attempt feels very unimaginative and canned. The monsters die as quickly as they appear with almost no backstory for any. Medusa didn't exist just to be slain by Perseus. She has her own story and it's a damn good one. In Leterrier's film, their stories are diminished into seconds and they just exist for the action sequences, which dominate the 106 minutes. Seeing these creatures get beheaded and killed with no justice to their story made me feel a bit sad. Furthermore, the film simply jumps from one monster to another with some heroic leadership speech thrown in the middle to give just enough incentive and need for the characters to go on. The script is obviously not a highlight for this film.
The attention to detail that should have been paid to the script has all been used for the graphics. The monsters are pristine and realistic in their 3D glory and the action sequences make the most of the technology. However, due to the aforementioned issues, the action sequences don't have much heart in them as the viewer doesn't care who or what is being killed. It's just a glorified monster bash.
To add insult to injury, the acting in the film is mediocre with a lot of stereotypical performances. Perseus (Sam Worthington of Avatar fame) is a meathead with heroism thrust upon him, Hades (Ralph Fiennes) is a bad God who apparently smokes a lot in Hell and has to bend to get places as one can tell from his osteoporosis, while Zeus (Liam Neeson) decides to wear full, glittering body armour in Olympus for some odd reason and speaks with a very low voice. Why doesn't anyone really think through what these Gods would live like up there and try to reinvent their world? It's boring to see these stereotypes even in 3D.
If all you'd like to see is some 3D popcorn film, by all means be my guest. But if you're looking for something with a bit more thought put into it, avoid Clash of the Titans. Don't say I didn't warn you.
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