The Clash Begins
Starring: Sam Worthington, Gemma Arterton, Mads Mikkelsen, Alexa Davalos, Ralph Fiennes, Liam Neeson, Jason Flemyng, Luke Evans, Polly Walker, Liam Cunningham
Director: Louis Leterrier
2010 | 106 Minutes | PG-13
“Release the Kraken!” – Zeus
I really put off seeing Clash of the Titans because of the incredibly mixed reviews I had read and heard from friends. When the sequel was released it sparked an interest in me to finally see Clash but I couldn’t find it anywhere. Now I finally found one and am quite pleased I did.
Half god, half man, Perseus (Sam Worthington) goes to the ends of the earth to avenge the death of his earthly father. Perseus fights god, man and everything in between to stop Hades from seizing control of Mount Olympus from Zeus.
I know some people don’t care for Sam Worthington but I find him to be just right for parts like this. He definitely has the look and build for the action and he can definitely pull off a level of charm and humor that is key for many action movies. I really hope he continues to get decent action roles like this.
There is something about the over the top special effects that really worked here. I wasn’t looking for photo realistic giant scorpions. The fact that it was a little fantastic looking seemed fitting.
I really liked the look of MountOlympus. It had a very dreamlike quality with extreme bright lights and Zeus’ shining armor. I loved how it looked as if the Gods were all looking down on earth from up high. There are a lot of really neat effects that went into creating this perfect view of MountOlympus.
Interesting that Luke Evans plays Apollo here and then only a year later he gets the upgrade to Zeus in Immortals. That’s all, just found it interesting.
The sense of adventure was really well created with an epic journey leading Perseus, seemingly, all over the world. There are so many different creatures, good and bad, that he encounters along the way. All of them are so vastly different from each other that I sometimes found myself more focused on the tiny details that went into creating these great beasts and not really paying all that much attention to what was being said on screen.
For some reason I found many of the fights to be a little less exciting than they should have been. The heavy use of CGI was probably part of the problem and it probably isn’t shocking that the best fights come when it is against Jason Flemyng’s character, Calibos.
The music sounded great and was epic in scale but was never once memorable.
Is it true to the original? I don’t know and I don’t care. I have never seen the original and I quite enjoyed this one.
Clash of the Titans was a little slower than I had expected but this pace was necessary to create the correct sense of adventure. I had heard such mixed reviews but was really glad I finally gave it a shot. The action could have been a little better but this movie is much more about the journey and the interesting creatures Perseus encounters along the way than it is about the fights.
Action Movie Fanatix 