Entertaining enough for a throwaway laugh or gasp

Rating: 4/10 (7 April 2010)

I watched the original Clash of the Titans merely days before the new remake to try and understand why it has become such a cult classic since its original release back in 1981. While people will tell you it is one of those films that are so bad it slowly becomes good, I actually found the film to be quite entertaining. It was by no means a great film, but it had heart and an epic scope limited only by its need to employ the effects of Ray Harryhausen.
Enter the remake, or reimagining as it so conveniently seems. As the people of Argos lash back against the Gods, including Zeus (Liam Neeson) and Hades (Ralph Fiennes), the Gods start to lash back. Caught in the crossfire is Zeus' bastard son Perseus (Sam Worthington), who seeks revenge against the Gods, but quickly finds out it is his destiny to save the townspeople and to help Princess Andromeda (Alexa Davalos) from being sacrificed to the mythic Kraken.
What was charming about the original film was its lack of dimensionality and complications. Perseus is raised and trained to fight against the Gods, and find his calling in saving Andromeda out of love. The plot was focused entirely around him, and the Gods took a back seat to his storyline. Hell, there really is no specific bad guy in the film at all. In the remake, it seems like they attempted to pile on as much story as they comprehensively could, cutting out certain Gods almost entirely (or having them stand almost as a placeholder and do next to nothing, such as Danny Huston's Poseidon or Alexander Siddig's Hermes), cutting out or changing characters around entirely, or curbing the screen time of some of the first film's integral characters (Jason Flemyng's Calibos immediately comes to mind).
But even with the changes and the added dimensionality for some, the film lacks the heart that drove the original almost entirely. There is nothing charming here, nothing fun. Sure the film is exciting, but it lacks the pulse that made the original so enjoyable. Of course, this is not helped by the script, which plays itself out much too seriously for its own good. There are a few amusingly ridiculous one-liners sprinkled throughout (the blatant sexual euphemism "Ease your storm" is a gem that sticks out), but the majority of the dialogue jumps quickly in scale of bad to worse. There was a reason huge chunks of the original film did not have any dialogue. Apparently the filmmakers here did not get the memo, and decided to jump amp up the silly dialogue as much as they could at any moment they could. And was there really a reason to replace Bubo the mechanical owl with a not so subtly camouflaged ripoff of Chewbacca?
Acting wise, the film is entirely hit and miss. The majority of performers are lifeless, and emotionally banal. While Neeson and Fiennes do their best to overcome the contrivances of the script, you can tell almost immediately that they really have no place in a film like this. They are much stronger thespians than that (although Fiennes appears to be channelling his inner Voldemort in far too many scenes). While it is nice to see them in a goofy picture like this, I find it very disheartening to note the last film they appeared in was Schindler's List. Bond veterans Gemma Arterton and Mads Mikkelsen seem to get the juiciest material in the whole picture, but both lack the real charisma and drive for the audience to really care about their characters, or their relationships to anyone else. Davalos fares even worse, seemingly making even a damsel in distress look difficult to pull off.
Worthington is the glue that holds the film together, and for the most part he does well. Even when he is clearly being held back or delivering the silliest pieces of dialogue, he still has the emotional presence to carry the film and make you care about his plight for revenge. I was not overly excited about the overly cliché revenge plot, or that he was playing an off-shoot of Jake Sully from Avatar here, but he still manages to make the character unique enough to stand alone. He may have been a breakthrough in Terminator Salvation, and simply great in Avatar, but here he merely maintains his status as an excellent newcomer. I look forward to his next film with great trepidation.
While there are a few bad green screening moments (and a few throwaway shots clearly thrown in to appeal to 3D viewers), the special effects are quite excellent. Gone is the stop motion and claymation of the original film, and in its place are CG effects that make everything look more realized that I imagined (and even include a few great makeup effects too). I was impressed by just about everything thrown at the screen (outside of the absurd scorpions), as they looked a lot better than I imagined they would. While not every scene is as polished as the next, they all come away looking very well done.
I did not expect a whole lot from Clash of the Titans going on what the trailers offer us, but having the shell of the original story still in place works in its favour. The film, even at its worst, still manages to be entertaining enough for a throwaway laugh or gasp. Although it is done in a more epic way in the God of War video game series and with more heart in the original film, there are still some things to like about the film. It is not a great film by any means, and it likely will never find the cult classic status its brethren did. But it is enjoyable enough, and could have been so much worse.
4.5/10.
(This review also appeared on http://www.geekspeakmagazine.com).