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Clash of the Titans: Release the 80s!!!

By Christopher De Maria · April 7, 2010

The updated Clash of the Titans is a big, loud, flashback to the fun filmmaking of the 80’s fantasy, when oversized mythical beasts, exotic locations and a clear good guy/bad guy motif are established all during the opening credits and that was good enough!

Written by Travis Beacham, Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, Clash is set at the boiling point of an ongoing battle between humans and Gods. Humans have grown tired of living in fear of the absentee Gods, who,in turn, give the humans a choice; sacrifice the beautiful Andromeda (Alexa Davalos) or suffer the wrath of the Kraken, arguably the largest monster ever created for a movie.

Thankfully, Perseus (Sam Worthington), the half man/half God son of Zeus (Liam Neeson), is hell bent on revenge for the death of his step-father at the hands of Hades (Ralph Fiennes). With a few allies along the way, Perseus sets out to destroy Medusa, the only key in taking down the giant beast that will unleash its wrath in 10 days on the city of Argos.

Evil lurks around every corner, which keeps the journey exciting. But even though we’re supposed to root for the humans, we don’t ever feel a connection to them on a personal level. They don’t seem to care about the Gods who gave them life in the first place. They simply take for granted everything they have and take no personal responsibility for their tragedies. I’m surprised the Gods didn’t unleash their wrath earlier. If only Zeus wasn’t so nice!

Clash is meant to be a reboot of the 1981 blockbuster. Sure, they made some changes, most notably Perseus’s motive – revenge instead of glory. But the lack of depth to any of the characters (as opposed to say, Batman) prevented me from ever really getting into the film.

If you liked the trailers and you want to see Clash on the big screen, go for it. Just realize that this film was made for one reason: to show the Kraken the way it was originally intended. Everything else is filler. With a running time of less then two hours, you have to know that going in.

Score: 70%