Clash of the Titans

CLASH OF THE TITANS

I was pretty excited to see “Clash of the Titans” because of I have great memories watching the 1981 original starring Harry Hamlin as a child.   How excited was I to see this 30 year old fantasy fun filled film that follows Perseus, Pegasus and a mechanical owl named Bubo battling the Gods, Fate, Medusa and the Kraken  with 2010 special effects?!  It couldn’t go wrong, right?  Wrong.  There was no Bubo.  Boo!  There was no riddle and severed hands.  Boo!  There was no Helmet of Invisibility.  Boo!   There was no two-headed dog.  Boo!  The list goes on.  Rather it was an updated version with some decent special effects, but totally lacked in what made the original fun… fantasy.  Sure, there were Gods, witches, scorpions, Medusa and a Kraken, but that was the bare minimum required to tell the story.  With today’s technology, I was expecting to see the filmmakers let loose.  Instead, they held back.

The upside was that it was entertaining.  The acting was decent.  The special effects pretty good.  The story was too simple to screw up.  And the directing was just okay.  I was relieved that the filmmakers didn’t include politics anywhere in the story.  That’s refreshing.  If I had to say that it in anyway leaned left or right, I would say to the right only because it was a story of man’s survival and good overcoming evil.

If they left me with anything, it was wanting to go watch the original again.  I remember loving the mechanical owl.  Maybe I will again almost thirty years later?

If I had it all over to do again, I would’ve paid $5.00 or less to see this movie… and seeing it in 3D wasn’t really necessary.