Starring: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Finnes, and
Alexa Davalos
Directed by: Louis Leterrier (Clash), and Jonathan Liebesman
(Wrath)
For me,
growing up, Clash of the Titans circa
1981, was one of my absolute favorite films.
What wasn’t to love for a young boy, you had a hero, the damsel in
distress, giant monsters, adventure, and the best spoken line ever in that
genre “Unleash the Krakken!!!” That movie
launched myself and many others into an appreciation for Greek mythology, and
from there an understand and appreciation for many of the true classics such as
the Iliad and the Odyssey. Then, as was
very popular in 2010, it got remade.
I have
a love/hate relationship with remakes.
On one hand, I can view it like a rebooting of continuity, such as is
popular for DC Comics. It’s an opportunity
for a new voice to write the characters, ironing out a lot of the flaws from
the original and perhaps making the story fresh and new fro new audiences. Looking back at 1981’s Clash of the Titans, I can appreciate it with a great deal of
nostalgia, but I have to admit that the acting and special effects could certainly
have been done better, so from that perspective, I can see the merit of the
remake. However, more often than not,
remakes end up damaging the integrity of the story and rather than doing
justice to a character, they end up insulting them.
And even from there, it all depends on what you deem a “remake”. Does Star
Trek 2009 count as a remake? We are
starting the franchise a new with a fresh cast reinterpreting the classic
characters, but it still tied into the old Star Trek storyline with Leonard
Nimoy as Spock, so it’s one half remake, one half continuation. Batman Begins tells the origin story of
Bruce Wayne from a fresh perspective, but can you call it a “remake” of Batman 1989? I’d say you couldn’t even call it a
prequel. Rather than a remake, it is
more of a “reboot”.
Which
is where we pick up Clash of the Titans
2010, where the plot bears little resembelance to the classic original. Here Perseus is at odds with the gods, Hades is
fueling the fires of a confrontation with the mortal realm, and is the primary
antagonist of the story. I won’t even go
into how far off that is from the original.
So Hades is threatening to unleash the Krakken on Argos unless they sacrifice
Andromeda, the queen’s daughter. Skipping
over a lot of stuff, this leads to the epic adventure, where in Perseus learns
of his relationship to Zeus, fights monsters, beheads Medusa, kills the Krakken
and leaves for “a simple life”
There was a lot changed from the original, mostly in Zeus’
relationship with Perseus, and more directly, the creature Calibos, who was
originally a scorned suitor to Andromeda who got spurred because she loved
Perseus more, not Perseus’ insane quasi-evil step dad.
But was this better?
Eh, kind of. On one hand, the intertwining
of relationships between characters, the rolling family feuds among the gods,
does feel very Greek, however it deviates too far from the source material for
me to enjoy the story line. Let me qualify
that, I mean it deviates too far from Greek mythology for me to enjoy it. Hades, in mythology, isn’t a usurper. He is a dark overlord who dominates his
domain. Here, Finnes portrays him as a
hand wringing villain looking to usurp Zeus’ throne. He wasn’t like that in the myths. He was patient, he was cold, but he rarely
left his realm and rarely did anyone come to visit him because he was the god
of Death. His kingdom was constantly
growing, and while storms may fade and seas dry up, everything dies, so his
kingdom was literally without end. There
was no reason to make him the primary villain in this story.
However, aside from the special effects, there were some
story elements that I really did enjoy, like the gods gaining their strength from
mortal prayers. That gave them a vested
interest in keeping the old faiths alive, because it ensured their immortality.
Now the pacing was a bit slow at parts for me, but overall
the story was well done, the special effects were amazing, and it was nice to
see some life and nods to the original work.
But wait! There’s
more!
Wrath of the Titans
was released in 2012 and picked up the story after Perseus had lived as a
simple fisherman for many years, having a family, and raising his son
Helious. Then Zeus, who apparently keeps
tabs on Perseus, pops in an tells him that Kronos, the uber titan from old, and
Perseus’ grandfather, is breaking the bonds that hold him to the underworld
because human prayer is in such short supply that the gods can’t use their
power to keep him there. Perseus rebukes
Zeus, saying he’s not leaving his son to go on a god’s errand, then later that
night has a nightmare about Kronos busting loose and going crazy.
The next morning, monsters are unleashed from the Underworld,
specifically a Chimera, which they play fast and loose with when it comes to its
design, and Perseus has to struggle to kill it in order to save his son and
what villagers weren’t destroyed in the attack.
He then goes to pray, essentially placing a phone call to Zeus but a
badly damaged Posideon shows up to tell him that Hades and Ares have teamed with
Kronos and have captured Zeus! Zeus
hands him his trident and tells him to seek out other demi-gods (which echos an
earlier line from Zeus about the gods calling their children together) to find “the
Fallen One” and stop Kronos. This leads
us to Perseus calling on Pegasus , going to meet now Queen Andromeda, and them
meeting Agenor, a thief and conman currently under her arrest.
The trio work together to find an uncharitable island, fight
of Cyclopes, and meet Hephesteaus who apparently designed the underworld and
then went loopy. That leads us to the next
level (it really starts to feel like a video game now) where we have a boss
fight, another map to go through, another boss fight, the freeing of Zeus, and
the discovery that only by doing some weird morphing thing can they merge the
weapons of Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon together to form a spear capable of taking
down Kronos. What follows is an
extremely long battle, and I won’t spoil the ending for you.
But how does it hold up? Well the addition of Agenor wasn’t
as distracting as I initially thought it would be. At first I thought “great, another thief/conman”,
but they didn’t linger on that. Instead,
they had this character experience distinct development based on figuring out
who he’s supposed to be. I’d complain
that they didn’t stick with the myths, but Agenor is only documented partially
in the myths and never given any defining character traits. Sam Worthington turns in a “more of the same”
performance, meaning he could literally be replaced by anyone else and no one
would know the difference, and while I’m glad that Neeson and Finnes are
getting work, as both are incredible actors, I’d like to see them try on
different roles from time to time. I
just feel like this is all just more of the same with nothing really interesting
happening. The monsters looked alright,
but without a really strong driving story, the monsters are just things that
happen. Kronos was also a bit of a
disappointment. I think they were trying
for a “living volcano” theme, but it just fell flat for me and the design just
wasn’t interesting.
So, final verdict? I recommend giving the 2010 film a look see,
but I’d skip the sequel unless you just really want to. They are nowhere near being great movies, but
also they aren’t “bad”.
Until next time, this is
Michael Bauch with Sidewinder Reviews, reminding you that when it comes to
escapist entertainment, go big or go home!
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