A Remake That Surpasses The Original!!!

Rating: 8/10 (5 April 2010)

Cherish your fond memories of the cult film favorite "Clash of the Titans" (1981) with Harry Hamlin, because "Incredible Hulk" director Louis Leterrier's remake twists virtually everything inside out. The superior remake eliminates some characters, replaces them with others, and alters the line-up of scenes. Indeed, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's "Clash of the Titans" revised the Greek myth of Perseus, but the Warner Brothers redux gives the legend a heavy-duty overhaul. Scenarist Travis Beacham along with "Æon Flux" co-scripters Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi have taken even more liberties with Greek mythology than Beverley Cross dared in the original. Comparatively, Leterrier and his scribes have surpassed the original simply because special effects technology has come so far since stop-motion guru Ray Harryhausen dazzled audiences with the 1981 version. Leterrier assembles gargoyles, gigantic back-hoe sized scorpions, a reptilian Medusa with writhing vipers for locks and a gaze that turns men into statues, and a humongous sea monster that resembles the adversary in Leterrier's "Incredible Hulk" sequel. Unlike the tongue-in-cheek, juvenile-oriented original, the "Clash of the Titans" remake takes itself pretty seriously and its solemn, larger-than-life shenanigans boast a brawny, believable look. Gone is the toy mechanical owl from the original, but the remake acknowledges Bubo the Owl before it consigns it to oblivion. The chief error that Warner Brothers made with this $126-million remake is they converted it from 2-D to 3-D. No "Clash of the Titans" was not lensed in 3-D. Indeed, some shots display some extraordinary depth from the foreground to the background. Nevertheless, you will miss nothing if you watch "Clash of the Titans" without your glasses. The edges around some characters and objects may appear fuzzy, but not as fuzzy as usual. The dead giveaway that the action was not photographed in 3-D is the absence of anything being hurled at you throughout this 106-minute melodrama.
"Terminator: Salvation" and "Avatar" star Sam Worthington plays the heroic Perseus as a sort of conscientious objector. As the film opens, the infant Perseus and his dead mother Danaë bubble up from the depths of the ocean in a wooden casket. An ordinary fisherman, Spyros (Pete Postlethwaite of "The Usual Suspects"), saves Perseus. He raises the lad as his own flesh and blood. Perseus knows he is an orphan, but Spyros loves him. Otherwise, Perseus knows nothing else about himself. In the original "Clash of the Titans," King Acrisius of Argos condemned Perseus and his mother Danaë to death and set them adrift in a coffin. Acrisius feared a prophecy that stipulated his death if his daughter bore a child. In this version, Zeus impregnates King Acrisius' wife and Acrisius sets them adrift. Perseus grows up and witnesses greater momentous events. Zeus (Liam Neeson of "Taken") created mankind so that human prayers would fuel the immortality of the deities. Unfortunately, mankind has grown weary of the Greek gods atop Mount Olympus, and King of Argos demolishes a towering statue of Zeus. After the monument falls into the sea, the God of the Underworld, Hades (Ralph Fiennes of "The English Patient"), unleashes gargoyles and even puts in an appearance, too. Hades creates a disturbance that sinks Spyros' ship, sending it to the bottom and drowning his entire family. Perseus survives this debacle and swears vengeance against Hades.
In the palace of Argos, Hades reappears, wipes out the palace guard, and informs King that Perseus is a demigod. Furthermore, as punishment for their blasphemous behavior, Hades plans to turn the Kraken loose on Argos and destroy the city in 10 days unless the King sacrifices his beautiful daughter, Andromeda (Alexa Davalos of "Defiance"), who is willing to die for the populace. Hades is angry because Zeus tricked him into presiding over the underworld. At one point, Zeus ordered Hades to create a monster that would destroy the Titans, the ancestors of Zeus and company, and Hades created the Kraken. Mind you, the Kraken is a creature from Scandinavian, not Greek mythology. As the son of Zeus, Perseus feels greater contempt for the gods and wants nothing to do with his hallowed father. The King of Argos persuades Perseus to lead an expedition to consult the Stygian Witches about the power of the Kraken. The Stygian Witches—blind hags with a single eye between them--explain that only the Medusa can destroy the Kraken. The Medusa, however, doesn't make house calls. We learn about the Medusa's origins and how she was punished for having sex with an Olympian god. When you see the Medusa, you'll understand why she doesn't get out often. One big difference between the original and the remake is Perseus lands a new romantic interest, Io (Gemma Arterton of "Quantum of Solace") who also serves as his guardian, replaces Andromeda. In the original, Perseus had 30 days to save Princess Andromeda and marry her. Meanwhile, Hades returns to the underworld and gives Acrisius a new lease on life to kill Perseus.
Rarely do remakes surpass the original, but "Clash of the Titans" qualifies as an exception. Meanwhile, "Clash of the Titans" qualifies as a good adventure opus and our heroes face some rather awesome adversaries. The scorpion fight is good and the giant scorpions come in handy for our heroes. French director Louis Leterrier knows something about pacing movies and this one never slows down. Every one of Leterrier's three previous films—"Unleashed" with Jet Li, "Transporter 2" with Jason Statham, and "The Incredible Hulk" with Edward Norton—was a fast-paced fracas that intertwined white-knuckled action with exposition. The single shortcoming of "Clash of the Titans" is all the narrative information that Leterrier and his writers have to force feed us. The prologue about the gods is essentially repeated later, but you don't have to know squat about the actual Greek myth because the revisions would only serve to confuse you. Worthington makes a credible but sympathetic hero and Gemma Arterton is easy on the eyes. The scenery is breathtaking and the larger-than-life heroics are exciting.