Clash of the Titans - review

Stop what you're doing and go see this movie!!!


I had so much fun watching this movie!  I think the last time I was that excited in a movie was X-Men 2 (even though I left disappointed).  But Clash of the Titans delivered!

So I think Gladiator set the starting point for our modern Roman/Greek Era stylization, mostly because everything since then has had a handful of qeues from it (300, Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Planet Hulk).  With that, add some awesome looking Greek gods, add some really good CGI'd monsters and we've got Clash.  I wasn't expecting a remake of the 1981 classic, you can't walk into retellings of stories that have been made into movies, expecting to see a "good remake" of the previous version ('A Fistful of Dollars'is not a remake of 'Yojimbo', as 1983's Scarface is not a remake of 1932's Scarface).  When you take the story of Perseus and his plight, you have to understand that even the 1981 film is a modern renaissance telling of his story. 
This Clash of the Titans announces its intentions as Perseus is collecting equiptment for his journey and he comes across the mechanical owl. He asks innocently, “What’s this?”  “Just leave it.” He's told and unfortunately, that's the last time we see the golden bird, and displacing this Clash from the 1981 version. Instead, we get an action romp aimed at Generation X, who prefers their heros as tough, and cynical.

Sam Worthington as Perseus does his part well, but I really feel he's too one sided as an action star and not a very good play-actor.  Even though I like him, he's beginning to come of as a himbo with not much depth outside an intense grill and cool growling yell.  But in the new era of mindless action, that's really all you need.  My new film love, Alexa Davalos (Kyra in Chronicle of Ridick), has the part of Andromeda, but they down played her signifigance to Perseus to be just the damsel in distress that he had to rescue only because it would save the city of Argos which was to be destroyed by the totally fucking awesome KRAKEN!  Which I think shows how much CGI has evolved in the last 5 years because the giant scorpions looked great as did the Kraken itself.  (Now Davey Jones of Pirates of the Carribean is where I hold my highbar of live action/cgi)
For Liam Neeson, this sure isn't Taken, but he does do a cool part as Zeus. Ralph Fiennes  is creepier then hell as Hades and I almost couldn't recognize him, and Gemma Arterton is a hot little Io.  I think the unsung hero of this film has to be Mads Mikkelsen as Draco.  The lieutenant of Perseus' band of adventurers, Draco was skeptical of Perseus' abilities and fate until Perseus finally mans up and takes his mantle as a human demigod.  My favorite line is when Draco hands Perseus the adamantine sword  and with distaste in his voice says, "If I only had your powers".

This movie is also billed as 3D, but the 3D visual effects are so tacked on and unnecessary. If you're reading this before you've seen the movie, see it in 2D first and if you ike it enough, go back to see it in 3D the second time.

Clash of the Titans was a helluva of a movie fun ride and please believe, I'll be going to theatres to see it again.

9 outta 10

Things wrong with it:   Changed the story of Perseus AGAIN.  Io seemed to know a whole lot about the on goings of the supernatural world, except how to kill the Kraken.  The magnitude of the strength of the Kraken was not conveyed as much as it could have been.  When they went to the Underworld to kill Medusa, they needed to pay the Ferryman; but they just walk right out the cave to leave?!  Medusa, even though CGId, didn't seem to have the gravity CGI characters such as King Kong has.