Clash of the Titans: Where are the Titans?

Anyone who read my post, The Titans are Here! can definitely state that I had high expectations to Clash of the Titans. How could I not? The trailer and everything looked so promising at first. However, we can't alwyas get what we expected, can we? Even though I haven't watched the original 1981 movie, but I believe it has more to show than this new craft.

The movie itself takes us back to the time of the gods, when gods--led by Zeus--rule over humans. The humans however, are starting to lose their faith of the gods. They have problems worshipping the gods while they suffer in life and the gods are so busy partying at Mount Olympus. The story starts out when a fisherman finds a coffin floating in the sea. Inside the coffin, there is a little baby who soon grows up to be Perseus (Sam Worthington). He lives a happy yet humble life, being a fisherman just like his foster dad, spending his time with his new family. His life reaches a turning point when his whole family becomes casualties when Hades (Ralph Fiennes) eradicates the humans who deny the gods.

Hades himself, is not without motives. He has a grudge against Zeus (Liam Neeson) because when the three god-brothers split up the world, he got the short straw of it. Zeus got Olympus, Poseidon (Danny Huston) got the sea, and Hades got the Underworld. This will surely set fire on anyone's heart and this time Hades wants to get rid of Zeus for good. His plan is to weaken Zeus by making the humans stop worshipping Zeus. Apparently, Zeus will become weaker if humans stop believing in him while Hades becomes stronger just by feeding of humans fear. For this sole reason is a city named Argos was chosen to be destroyed by the Kraken if the people in the city don't sacrifice the princess of the city, Andromeda (Alexa Davalos) to the Kraken.

Perseus, on the other hand, driven by revenge and disappointment of the gods sets out to get even with Hades. In order to beat Hades is to weaken him first and the only way to do that is by slaying his son, the Kraken. By slaying the Kraken, Perseus can save the city and also get his revenge on Hades. Very convenient for Him, isn't it? So the journey to find a way to beat the Kraken begins. On the journey, he met Io (Gemma Arterton) who soon grows to be his love interest. As usual, our hero will never get the easy way out. He must face giant scorpions, climb the highest mountains to talk to sorcerers, enter Medusa's lair to cut off her head, and finally defeat the Kraken and send the ruler of the Underworld back to the bottom of the earth. If these seem like a job impossible to do by a mortal man, then it is simply because Perseus is not just an ordinary human. He is actually the son of Zeus. Apparently Zeus--defied by a human king in the past--decided to get even with the king by disguising himself as the king and had a go with the king's wife. The king who couldn't handle the fact then sent both the queen and the baby drifting in the sea. Hence, we know now why there is a baby floating in the middle of the sea in the first place.

Overall, I have to admit that the movie does have great visual effects that the original 1981 version failed to give at that time, but i'm afraid that it's all that it has. The movie plus the characters didn't leave any strong impressions as they are so easily forgotten. I already knew that Perseus would cut off Medusa's head and defeat the Kraken in the end, so why not spend some time in building the characters? Perseus as the main character doesn't seem to have a strong enough reason to even start his journey in the first place. Not to mention the mysterious character Io who doesn't even exist in the mythology. It appears she is just there to be the perfect match for Perseus. Gemma Arterton is undeniably pretty, but it is just terrible to put her in the movie just to satisfy our eyes. There is just something off about the movie. The story doesn't really start and end coherently. It's as if it wants to go to so many places at first but ends up going nowhere at all. To add everything up, it is not originally a 3D movie, but it was a 2D movie made to be 3D just to make extra money for the studio, and we know for sure that converted movie like that doesn't really show the best quality of 3D movies.


Cast: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Alexa Davalos, Mads Mikkelsen, Jason Flemyng

Director: Louis Leterrier

Genre: Action, Adventure

Theatrical Release: April 2, 2010 Worldwide

Rating: PG-13