Jason KingClash of the Titans (4/10)
April 1st 2010 07:46
:
HORRENDOUS DISAPPOINTMENT
Category: No Category
When I first heard they were re-imagining Clash of the Titans I nearly wet myself with excitement - growing up this was one of my all time favourite films that I could watch over and over and imagine I was Perseus doing battle with the gods while flying on Pegasus. It had the Greek mythology and the Gods behind it and was not only interesting but mildly historical from the point of legend.
What I saw today had elements of fantasy and of the original but with all the special effects and money behind it this one does absolutely nothing. It was hard for me to judge this film as I was biased - I wanted it to be a huge success but nearly everything let me down and I was saddened this will never reach the heights of the campy version from the 80's.
In Clash of the Titans, the ultimate struggle for power pits men against kings and kings against gods. But the war between the gods themselves could destroy the world. Born of a god but raised as a man we have our hero in Perseus.
Australia's own Sam Worthington is riding the high life after being first cast in Avatar and then the latest Terminator film, this then led him on to Clash of the Titans as Perseus. He is a younger, better looking Russell Crowe and I watched an interview with him this week where he said "I will just keep on acting in everything until they discover I am a sham" - oh the irony of that comment - for surely it is going to be noticed in this film. He is boring and monotonic and hero or not I never felt sorry for him or cared if he lived or died. This is a big call for me as I have always been a Worthington supporter and want him to be hugely successful. But I fear his "A" game days are going to come screaming to a halt. He may be the hardest worker who does amazing films but he has no charisma and it just looked like he was reading lines - there was zero emotion present. Give me the Crowe any day.
Clash of the Titans is directed by Louis Leterrier (The Incredible Hulk). Leading the international cast is Australian actor Sam Worthington (Terminator Salvation, Avatar) as Perseus, the mortal son of Zeus, king of the gods. Academy Award nominee Liam Neeson (Taken, Schindler's List) takes on the role of the mighty Zeus, and Academy Award nominee Ralph Fiennes (the Harry Potter films, The English Patient) plays the role of Hades, god of the underworld, who feeds on human fear. Rounding out the cast is Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace) as Io, Perseus' mysterious spiritual guide throughout his journey; Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale) as Draco, who takes up his sword to join Perseus' quest; Jason Flemyng (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) as Acrisius, a one-time king turned hideous beast; and Alexa Davalos (Defiance) as Andromeda, a princess doomed to lose her life if Perseus does not succeed.
Liam Neeson is the perfect Zeus for me, he has power and strength and is naturally huge - but he also comes across as overly serious and kind of boring, he also looks like a giant disco ball straight off a Mardi Gras float
. Ralph Fiennes, on the other hand, stole the show for me, he plays the evil Hades, ruler of the underworld with a desire to end Zeus's rule. He is basically playing Voldemort in slightly different costume. Even when the other gods leave a room they look like the Deatheaters apparating in Harry Potter. Hades makes entering a party and departing look very cool. One thing I did not like about Fiennes was his hair - it looked like a very visual bald piece over the front half of his head, I found this very distracting, as though the hair and makeup department had not finished sitting the rest of his head on what looked like a glue covered crown. Ladies and Gay Gents - keep your eyes out for a blink and miss scene with Luke Evans as Apollo - he is breathtaking and will soon have a much larger role in Robin Hood One to watch.
The only two characters with appeal who I actually liked are small bit actors playing the two hunters - I cannot find their names but they were fun. An odd two in the film were Skins TV brother and sister, Nicholas Hoult and Kaya Scodelario playing small roles. I love this show to pieces and was very surprised when I noticed Hoult - he is incredibly attractive and made so even more in this film because someone has plucked his aeroplane wing sized eyebrows and put some hair extensions on - me is impressed with his looks but even he is incredibly bored onset. I realised watching Hoult that I can't blame the actors for this disappointment, the blame surely lies in poor direction. For long time players like Neeson and Fiennes they can stand in a room and perform but newbies need a director to draw out a performance, even certain scenes require certain emotions - I think director, Loius Leterrier (The Incredible Hulk) wasn't very good at achieving this and relied solely on the actors to do all his work and on a lot of CGI. This is where Worthington failed because he wasn't blue - he was a real life demigod.
The films does have some amazing visuals. Pegasus was by far my fave and he looked spectacular. I do like the change from white to black for this film and I do like the cameo from the metallic owl - I had a little giggle. The Kraken is also spectacular with a great sub base roar. But as much as I loathed Uma Thurman playing Medusa in Percy Jackson I thought she was much better than the CGI version of this film. It looked more like Angelina Jolie from Beowulf. Another thing that completely ruined this film for me was the appalling last minute attempt to make it 3D. Clash of the Titans was not filmed in 3D, it was filmed as your standard 35mm film and I must suggest that this is the way you view it. The 3D is woeful. All completed in post production they basically create an overlapping identical second layer to the film and then move it a bit to the left - this gives you your two layers that then when made 3D provide a depth of field to the image. It is so shocking, you can see a double image in many scenes and landscapes look concave on screen, even a few closeups look like characters have the start of a scalping and one scene in particular looked like Perseus had a caved in neck and his head was sticking forward. Very very bad. Stick to the original presentation of 35mm and not the cash in because they thought it would be easy to achieve the 3D visuals on the success of Avatar.
Clash of the Titans opened today and is playing everywhere. Teenage boys will no doubt love it but if you want a better story that looks much camper with some decent stop motion monsters then rent out the original from your video stores. Sham shame shame. Worth 4/10.
What I saw today had elements of fantasy and of the original but with all the special effects and money behind it this one does absolutely nothing. It was hard for me to judge this film as I was biased - I wanted it to be a huge success but nearly everything let me down and I was saddened this will never reach the heights of the campy version from the 80's.
In Clash of the Titans, the ultimate struggle for power pits men against kings and kings against gods. But the war between the gods themselves could destroy the world. Born of a god but raised as a man we have our hero in Perseus.
Australia's own Sam Worthington is riding the high life after being first cast in Avatar and then the latest Terminator film, this then led him on to Clash of the Titans as Perseus. He is a younger, better looking Russell Crowe and I watched an interview with him this week where he said "I will just keep on acting in everything until they discover I am a sham" - oh the irony of that comment - for surely it is going to be noticed in this film. He is boring and monotonic and hero or not I never felt sorry for him or cared if he lived or died. This is a big call for me as I have always been a Worthington supporter and want him to be hugely successful. But I fear his "A" game days are going to come screaming to a halt. He may be the hardest worker who does amazing films but he has no charisma and it just looked like he was reading lines - there was zero emotion present. Give me the Crowe any day.
Clash of the Titans is directed by Louis Leterrier (The Incredible Hulk). Leading the international cast is Australian actor Sam Worthington (Terminator Salvation, Avatar) as Perseus, the mortal son of Zeus, king of the gods. Academy Award nominee Liam Neeson (Taken, Schindler's List) takes on the role of the mighty Zeus, and Academy Award nominee Ralph Fiennes (the Harry Potter films, The English Patient) plays the role of Hades, god of the underworld, who feeds on human fear. Rounding out the cast is Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace) as Io, Perseus' mysterious spiritual guide throughout his journey; Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale) as Draco, who takes up his sword to join Perseus' quest; Jason Flemyng (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) as Acrisius, a one-time king turned hideous beast; and Alexa Davalos (Defiance) as Andromeda, a princess doomed to lose her life if Perseus does not succeed.
Liam Neeson is the perfect Zeus for me, he has power and strength and is naturally huge - but he also comes across as overly serious and kind of boring, he also looks like a giant disco ball straight off a Mardi Gras float
. Ralph Fiennes, on the other hand, stole the show for me, he plays the evil Hades, ruler of the underworld with a desire to end Zeus's rule. He is basically playing Voldemort in slightly different costume. Even when the other gods leave a room they look like the Deatheaters apparating in Harry Potter. Hades makes entering a party and departing look very cool. One thing I did not like about Fiennes was his hair - it looked like a very visual bald piece over the front half of his head, I found this very distracting, as though the hair and makeup department had not finished sitting the rest of his head on what looked like a glue covered crown. Ladies and Gay Gents - keep your eyes out for a blink and miss scene with Luke Evans as Apollo - he is breathtaking and will soon have a much larger role in Robin Hood One to watch.
The only two characters with appeal who I actually liked are small bit actors playing the two hunters - I cannot find their names but they were fun. An odd two in the film were Skins TV brother and sister, Nicholas Hoult and Kaya Scodelario playing small roles. I love this show to pieces and was very surprised when I noticed Hoult - he is incredibly attractive and made so even more in this film because someone has plucked his aeroplane wing sized eyebrows and put some hair extensions on - me is impressed with his looks but even he is incredibly bored onset. I realised watching Hoult that I can't blame the actors for this disappointment, the blame surely lies in poor direction. For long time players like Neeson and Fiennes they can stand in a room and perform but newbies need a director to draw out a performance, even certain scenes require certain emotions - I think director, Loius Leterrier (The Incredible Hulk) wasn't very good at achieving this and relied solely on the actors to do all his work and on a lot of CGI. This is where Worthington failed because he wasn't blue - he was a real life demigod.
The films does have some amazing visuals. Pegasus was by far my fave and he looked spectacular. I do like the change from white to black for this film and I do like the cameo from the metallic owl - I had a little giggle. The Kraken is also spectacular with a great sub base roar. But as much as I loathed Uma Thurman playing Medusa in Percy Jackson I thought she was much better than the CGI version of this film. It looked more like Angelina Jolie from Beowulf. Another thing that completely ruined this film for me was the appalling last minute attempt to make it 3D. Clash of the Titans was not filmed in 3D, it was filmed as your standard 35mm film and I must suggest that this is the way you view it. The 3D is woeful. All completed in post production they basically create an overlapping identical second layer to the film and then move it a bit to the left - this gives you your two layers that then when made 3D provide a depth of field to the image. It is so shocking, you can see a double image in many scenes and landscapes look concave on screen, even a few closeups look like characters have the start of a scalping and one scene in particular looked like Perseus had a caved in neck and his head was sticking forward. Very very bad. Stick to the original presentation of 35mm and not the cash in because they thought it would be easy to achieve the 3D visuals on the success of Avatar.
Clash of the Titans opened today and is playing everywhere. Teenage boys will no doubt love it but if you want a better story that looks much camper with some decent stop motion monsters then rent out the original from your video stores. Sham shame shame. Worth 4/10.
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
So this was even worse than the trailer made it look then?
Takes a special kind of skill to screw up one of the most epic stories of all time...they had a blueprint to escapist adventure and blew it.
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
I too was looking forward to this epic. Seems that whenever Hollywood gets a big story with lots to create for effects, they all too often screw it up somehow. Like Pearl Harbour...which added insult to injury by changing the facts.
Anyway, I'll wait till DVD and see it, if I have not anything better to do, maybe.
cheers
fog
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
DVD would probably be good for it - the 3D is crap so watching it on a nice plasma or LCD would have a good presentation.
Thanks heaps for commenting and have a great Easter.
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Now Michael Bien! there was a guy with charisma! what the hell ever happened to him! he always acted in these event movies and knocked it out the park every time!
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
Biehn did some B graders, some TV and has faded somewhere into the world of B grade land. He has 6 films about to come out and is in development on a film called Navy Seals. Last film I recognise him in was Grindhouse, Planet Terror.