Faces, Movements

Rating: Null/10 (30 April 2010)

You don't need me to tell you that this has no cohesion or imagination.
If there was ever a lesson in the importance of a director, compare how goofy Sam Worthington looks here compared to his doing the same action moves in Pandora. Or for that matter Fiennes and Neeson. This is bad enough to qualify as a Marvel noisefest with images-developed-elsewhere.
But they did one thing well I think: the women. I know this will be more individual than most film opinions, and my demographic and sexual history may be different than most, but these women lit up the screen whenever they appeared.
As the queen whose heretical indiscretions are behind the curse of Argos, we have Polly Walker. She, who in the past has leveraged proud, liquid beauty, (especially in "8 ½ Women") has earned her way in our memory. We can easily believe she would taunt the gods just for the hell of it. (Heh.) And believe she deserves to.
The princess is who we initially expect is going to be the love interest. That she proves not to be is the only narrative surprise in this drudge. She is not the busty, snarling fish filmmakers often put in these films. She is an ordinary girl, who looks ordinary, like she was picked out while waitressing. Yes, I know she is a model, but her appeal is that she does not seem so.
There is even care in minor women: Elizabeth McGovern as the adoptive mother. Tine Stapelfeldt as the mother of Perseus by rape tells volumes in the seconds we see her dead. That's acting. You even have Jane March in the background of Olympus!
But the female anchor of this thing is a remarkable presence. We saw her in her natural redheaded state in the last James Bond Adventure. She dies of course. She impressed, and was able to keep the first part of that film alive in spite of itself. Here she has a balance between innocent devotion and willing adventuress. Made up more than the other women, they've artificially made her luminous, like Zeus. In the actual myth, she has an extraordinary role not shown here, as mistress to Zeus.
Gemma Arterton, worth the light she uses.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.