Trash of the Titans

Rating: 3/10 (13 July 2010)

Leaving aside the mythological inaccuracies of the film, which for any fan of Greek mythology is understandable, or the fact that it's a remake, this was still disappointing. The original definitely did the actual story of Perseus more justice, had way more character development and a better storyline.
Nothing more than a hack-and-slash action flick, further to the complete lack of any character development the stab at romance falls really flat. Don't expect to garner much emotion for any of the characters or for the storyline itself. The first film's story where Perseus' actions were driven by his love for Andromeda worked a lot better and was more fitting to the mythology. Why they changed it into a strange story of revenge, I really can't fathom. Perseus and Andromeda barely talk to each other in this version, and the Kraken in this film seems to be more an excuse to show off lavish CGI than anything else, and I didn't like the way it was done. You know it's going to finally show up at the end, it makes its way to the city almost instantly once it's released and then proceeds to writhe around in the water for ages conveniently waiting for Perseus as he sets himself set up to kill it. It was supposed to be suspenseful, but wasn't in the slightest. It just went too long, and for some reason it left me feeling sorry for the Kraken.
Also, in the midst of the Kraken attack why did the annoying preacher guy stab and kill the king when all he did was express anguish that his daughter was strung up as a sacrifice? That was very strange and random. He was already annoying, no need to create another reason for us to hate him even more.
Why did they bother with the 2 minute 'training' scene? That was also random and really reeked of being just thrown in. It had no point and didn't serve to show us anything we didn't assume or know already.
Add to this a painful comic relief axe-wielding blatant Gimli ripoff and his equally annoying friend, who leave halfway through much to my delight because things are getting too serious for them, only to have them appear in the midst of the climax in a horribly gratuitous act of formulaic 'heroism' we've seen dozens of times before, which never really works any more and as a result worked even less here. Their bit at the climax was probably the most annoying thing I saw in the film. It left me literally shaking my head and made me want to switch off right there.
The film ended with a blatantly obvious lead-in to a sequel, where Liam basically says to Sam word for word 'the bad guy's gone now, but he'll definitely be back and madder than ever' and that was it. I was left with an overall feeling of dissatisfaction as the credits rolled, and a sense that the whole thing felt way too rushed.
On the acting front, there's nothing to really mention. They all do their job, I guess. Mads and Liam stand out as the talent. I can't help thinking that all Sam Worthington was trying to do was a bad impression of Russell Crowe in Gladiator. He'll never have that same intensity, so don't even try. Continuing on the impression front, Ralph Fiennes seemed to be doing an equally bad one of his much scarier looking/sounding/acting Lord Voldemort. He definitely wasn't taking his role in this film as seriously, and it showed.
A few points for the effects, but as good as they can be effects are no longer enough to carry a film in terms of quality (unless they're of groundbreaking Avatar-like quality, and the effects of this film don't even come close to that). Unfortunately effects alone are enough to carry a film at the box office and probably always will be so until that changes we'll continue to get films like this, devoid of anything much more than said effects. Don't go into this film expecting much else.