It's as if I've seen this movie before...

Rating: 6/10 (3 April 2010)

...Probably it's because I have. That's why they call these things re-makes, this one being re-made from the 1981 version. Still, I found it a bit sad that the writers didn't come up with many new ideas when they could have. Yes, they had to follow the same plot path in Perseus asking the 3 witches how to defeat the Kraken, taking Medusa's head, and speeding back upon Pegasus to turn the monster to stone. But there are so many minor scenes and plot points that didn't need to be recreated basically identical to the 1981 film.
For example, in this movie Perseus fights giant scorpions that spawn from venomous blood. Yeah, that was in the original. In this movie Perseus is given a sword from Zeus himself and has a mighty shield with a mirror on the inside in which he uses to defeat Medusa. Yeah, that was in the original. This time around Perseus engages in battle with Calibos, and Calibos loses his arm. Yeah, that was in the original. Heck, even the mechanical owl Bubo was here for a scene. (Actually, that was probably just an homage gag that I rather enjoyed seeing) These are just a few examples of many points of re-using the same ideas instead of coming up with something more original. Couldn't the giant scorpions have spawned some way else, and did they have to be giant scorpions? Couldn't Perseus have defeated Medusa in a more original way?
Apart from stealing ideas from the original, this version has characters that are either ham-handed into the story or are altogether superfluous. For example, Calibos - a.k.a. King Acrisius - really wasn't needed other than in the scene where he kills his wife and attempts to kill infant Perseus for his wife sleeping with Zeus. And by the way, if you're going to kill your wife for having an affair why wait 9 months? Why not just kill her immediately? But I digress. In the original movie, Perseus loves Andromeda and you can see why he would risk life and limb to find a way to defeat the Kraken. Andromeda is an afterthought in this movie. And though I can't complain here about the writers' attempts to differ from the original, I think they put the idea of Killing the Kraken to weaken Hades for Perseus to get revenge was a bit of a stretch.
Most of the characters in this movie were also expendable, so there wasn't much character development apart from Perseus himself. As for the actors portraying their respective roles, most were forgettable. Sam Worthington was decent enough as Perseus, Mads Mikkelsen was serviceable as Draco, Ralph Fiennes was underused as Hades, and Liam Neeson's Zeus... well let's just say he was no Sir Laurence Olivier.
As for the special effects, I thought they were good, not mind-blowing great. Light years better than the original's stop-motion technique, for sure. Most scenes were pleasing to the eye. But I will remark that I think the CGI guys here may have taken a few ideas from Lord of the Rings and mish-mashed them into this movie. Here we have mysterious robed people controlling and riding atop giant scorpions of their own from little enclosures that reminded me a lot of the Oliphants. And the Kraken itself reminded me a lot of just a super-sized Cave Troll with tentacles. As for the 3-D effect, I cannot comment positive or negative as I wasn't able to see it in a 3-D showing.
Music was nothing to write home about. In fact I'd say it was also forgettable as I can't for the life of me describe the music as I've already forgotten it not 5 hours from seeing the film. And they used pretty much your basic battle scene smashing and clanking noises. So, not great, but not horrible sound effects.
Okay so that's pretty much my in-depth review for this movie, sorry about the spoilers. But I did click the "contains spoilers" box, so you were warned. If you may be wondering why I rated this 6/10 instead of a lower score after 6 paragraphs of pointing out its flaws or average nature, it's because I still thought it was a somewhat decent movie. Perhaps not one you need to run out to the theaters to see, but it's good enough to rent. I don't know, maybe I'm being too kind because I'm a little nostalgic due to the fact that I rather enjoyed the 1981 version of "Clash of the Titans," campy nature and all. In fact I prefer the original to this, but that's just my opinion. Feel free to watch both and compare for yourself.