Nice visuals but not a great film...

Rating: 5/10 (20 February 2011)

As this film was released in 3D I had no interest in seeing it when it was released, I'm not a fan of paying extra for something that adds very little to the film and usually gives me a headache. Although, I believe, it made a bit of money, it was not critically well received. Well, I don't always agree with them, but on this occasion I'm here to tell you I have to agree with the critics. But more of my thoughts later, here's a brief summary first (summary haters and those who don't wish to know anything about the plot please fend off those giant scorpions while I write the next paragraph).
The gods live on mount Olympus and feed off the worship of the humans below. Unfortunately the humans are getting restless and don't feel the love any more. The leader of the gods, Zeus, isn't too happy about this and when his brother, Hades comes to him with a plan, he listens. Hades wants to teach the humans a lesson by releasing the Kraken, a giant sea monster, on them. Meanwhile back with the humans, a young man, a son of Zeus called Perseus is chosen to find a way to defeat the Kraken. A band of men go with him and one woman, Io, who proves to be of great help to Perseus. They must first find three witches who hold the secret to destroying the Kraken I think you get the drift. There's also the story of how the gods are trying to stab each other in the back going on, but I think there's enough there to give you the gist.
This is a very well made film, you can tell they had a pretty large budget to make this one. There is quite a lot of CGI and it is all of high quality. The trouble is, it did tend to detract from the story by making the visuals more important and not progressing the story in places. Decent performances all round; Sam Worthington was good as Perseus, although I felt he was a little too subdued for the role. Liam Neeson donned the sparkly armour and did a good job as Zeus, Ralph Fiennes was the best of the bunch (IMO) as Hades, you got two for the price of one with Jason Flemyng as Calibos/Acrisius and Gemma Arterton did a decent job as Io.
I felt the plot was a little over complicated, there were lots of sub-plots going on and I could feel it getting a little confusing at times. Although the visuals were great, again, they didn't really add a great deal (for me). Over all, although it's not going to win any prises, it's entertaining enough, a good one for a wet Sunday afternoon on the TV but I wouldn't pay to see it in the cinema.
My score: 5.2/10