Clash of the Titans

Honestly, better than I expected, with decent fights and excellent visual effects. Incomparable to the original, but I'm glad nobody even tried. A likeable summer blockbuster. Mads Mikkelsen is the best of the lot, and Gemma Arterton is possibly the hottest babe in Hollywood right now. (04/30/2010)

After the trailer massage, I couldn’t wait to see it, the negative responses took my expectations down to the deepest depths and the end result is somewhere in between. Well not completely in between because the positives outweigh the negatives. The beginning was like hurry up let’s get it over with, so the adventure can begin, reeling off some cool lines and killing some monsters, but as soon as we get to the adventure part everything is gonna be alright. It’s the fault of the screenplay which is a rough-and-tumble patchwork of the worst kind with a couple of good ideas. Leterrier is still not good enough director to be able to hide this, but thanks to him the Titans are brimming over with unbelievable kinetics. There are sweeping shots of everything imaginable, impressive special effect and a very good cast. Sam’s acting style is more or less classic, the role of Perseus doesn’t need anything more than that, but Mads Mikkelsen literally shines like a star. Liam Neeson was a pretty good Zeus and Gemma Arterton… well… I can’t bring myself to say a single word against her. She is a beauty and she really can act. It’s a shame that the Kraken stayed a little dormant, but it could be expected in terms of speeding up the plot. I was surprised to see such low marks and so I decided to give it more stars. I look forward to watching it again sometime. (06/26/2010)

The rulers of heaven, which looks like something from a cheap porn flick, send two “scary” characters – a dimwit from Star Trek and a CGI Medusa with a model’s face – to stop a modern-day Chuck Worthington Norris from preventing Kraken’s King-Kong dinner. If Louis Leterrier really is a fan of the 1981 original, which, as he says, is forever in his heart and on his mind, he should get a brain transplant. (04/13/2010)

I'd be happier if this version wasn't so sure of its position as a remake (see the owl scene). As a standalone film, it might be more acceptable, but the additional fact that it's supposed to be the first part of a new trilogy is just another load of crap. In terms of the formal aspects, the film is a strange mix of almost TV-like scenes, supplemented here and there by effective (kitschy) shots of landscapes or sunsets. The dreaded monsters are more disgusting than scary, and the gods forgot their glow back in the 1980s, which isn't exactly great either. The acting is unfortunately completely lacking. Hans Matheson and Polly Walker are not the worst of the bunch, but they also only have miniscule roles. The same goes for Mads Mikkelsen or Luke Evans, but I didn't even notice them until much later. I'm really not an uncritical admirer of the original film, but this film is hopeless, where the only good thing is the few minutes spent with Medusa. (11/29/2011)

A much lesser evil after a second viewing. The biggest flaws (Leterrier's botched direction of everything, rip-offs at every turn, the absolutely plankish Worthington, the terrible music) remain, but once you're sort of prepared for what you'll see it gets a lot more digestible. Two and a half stars. (04/20/2010)