Clash of the Titans
This Tuesday, I went to the movies. The movie was “Clash of the Titans” a 2010 remake of the movie (of the
same name) from 1981. The film is directed by Louis Leterrier.
I had bought some chocolate and sat down with three friends from school. I had really looked forward to it, because I had heard it was supposed to be a great movie ^^
It’s centered on the legend of Perseus, set in old Greece. It starts with a narration about the three Olympians, Zeus, Poseidon and Hades who battled the Titans a long time ago. Hades provides the means of the defeat of the Titans by creating the Kraken; a horrible monster from the seas.
After the defeat of the Titans, Zeus created the humans and ruled them while Poseidon ruled the seas. But, Hades, being deceived by his brothers, was forced to rule the underworld, getting his strength and immortality through fear from the humans. Poseidon and Zeus keep alive and strong through the devotion and love from the humans. Through prayers.
Millennia later, a fisherman named Spyros finds a coffin adrift in the sea, discovering a baby, Perseus, and his dead mother, Danaë, inside. Spyros decides to raise Perseus as his own.
Years later, Perseus and his family are fishing when they witness a group of soldiers from Argos destroying a statue of Zeus as a declaration of war against the gods. Hades appears and commands harpies to massacre the soldiers before he himself destroys Perseus's family's fishing boat. Perseus tries to save his family, but doesn’t make it.
The surviving soldiers take Perseus back to Argos. During a feast for the returning soldiers King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia of Argos compare themselves and their daughter, Andromeda, to the gods much their daughter's dismy.
After convincing his brother to let him loose on humanity to punish Argos for its defiance, Hades appears in the courtroom before killing the remaining soldiers while Perseus is unaffected. Revealing Perseus to be the demigod son of Zeus, and aging Cassiopeia to death, Hades threatens that if Princess Andromeda is not sacrificed to the Kraken, Argos will be destroyed in 10 days.
The king seeks the help of Perseus after he is placed in the dungeon. Perseus initially refuses until he meets Io, a woman who does not age as punishment for refusing to be seduced by a god. Io then reveals his conception was a punishment conducted by Zeus on Acrisius, the former king of Argos who was married to Danaë, for his actions against the gods.
When Acrisius sets Danaë and the baby Perseus adrift in their coffin; an enraged Zeus struck Acrisius with lightning, leaving him hideously disfigured.
After learning that killing the Kraken would allow him to have his revenge against Hades, Perseus accepts as he and Argos' finest soldiers embark on a quest to find the Stygian Witches with a pair of hunters and Io following. To counter this turn of events, Hades enlists Acrisius, now called Calibos, to kill off Perseus by imbuing him with superhuman powers.
It is now up to Perseus to find a way to kill the Kraken and thereby defeating Hades and avenge his family..
I expected it to be a lot like “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” but it turned out quite a bit different. In “Clash of the Titans” it’s not at all modern, which is a thing I’ve always loved in movies. History and religion are very fascinating to me and I always appreciated period pieces as opposed to temporary movies.
Already know I can say I prefer this one to “Percy Jackson”, even though they are both great. “Clash of the Titans” works very well when it comes to special effects. The Kraken looks so real and the nature of Hades is very cleverly made almost realistic. I really can’t see Ralph Fiennes playing ‘the good guy’ anymore. xD
The actors also include Sam Worthington as Perseus, Liam Neeson as Zeus, Mads Mikkelsen as the leader of the army, Draco and Gemma Arterton as Io.
Arterton is beautiful and she delivers the sorrow and knowing characteristic of the woman who is cursed to be beautiful forever.
Mikkelsen is harsh, full of wisdom and comes off as a true warrior, who has trained all his life to obey orders from his king.
The rest is almost not worth mentioning. Sam Worthington did a great job as the marine Jake Sully in “Avatar”, but in this, he is almost not even mediocre. His performance doesn’t add up to the beauty of the visual side or the cast. He is boring and it feels like someone just pulled him out of Pandora, gave him working legs, a costume and changed his name to Perseus.
Liam Neeson is an amazing actor, whom I fell for totally when watching “Love Actually”. He has a certain power in his appearance that comes across great as the highest of the gods. But somehow it just doesn’t work. It doesn’t seem like he’s supposed to be there, like the air is being sucked out of him Oo Not working at all.
The universe itself is a rewriting of the original legend, but if you’re willing to ignore that, the story is very good, interesting, and fast and it has a visual side that’s just amazing.
But it weighs down hard, that even the talent of Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson can’t make the Olympus work fully on screen. However it works a lot better in this one compared to “Percy Jackson” in which it just seems comical.
Anyway I really ended up enjoying the night. The creatures are very well made, the story works, it revolves around a subject of my interest, it looks amazing.. Besides the acting, it’s a very good film!
All in all, it makes me want to go home and google Perseus and find out more, which is a must for a movie of this sort, if I’m going to like it. ^^
Have you watched it? Or are you planning on doing it?
You should, I really enjoyed it ^^
What do you think? :D 
